Walking in the Devastated Area
by thehistorygeek
Summary: Sequel to "Ruins". Chelsea and Vaughn think they have finally outrun thier bad luck, but they were wrong. They now have to risk their lives to save them, run from friends, the lives they used to lead, and nightmares that are coming true.
1. Home Sweet Home

**Ok, I thought about re-doing this chapter and deleted the story, but then I decided not to so I put it back up. If you've already read chapter 1, then just ignore this. :)**

**Yayy for new stories! As you've probably realized, I decided to cut off my reading break. I need to write :P And I'm mean, so I'ma make you jealous: I didn't have school yesterday, today, and I don't have school tomorra! ATHANK YOU SNOW!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters.**

Home Sweet Home

I leaned over the railing of the ferry, watching Sunny Island slowly rise over the horizon. The last time I was on a boat, I was unconscious.

Looking over at Vaughn, who was standing beside me, I smiled. We had been through so much together, and it seemed like it was finally over. Life was slowly returning to normal.

I had been discharged from the hospital this morning after a two-year coma. I had fallen into my coma when the old house of Vaughn's mother, Bella Wilkens, collapsed on my best friend Julia and me. Vaughn had also been in the collapse, but nobody knew it. They all he had been at his job in the city. But when he didn't return, they all suspected he had been killed.

In truth, he had been living with the local natives in the jungle. They had found him buried beneath rubble, and took him in. I found him only last week.

And here we were, on our way back from the island. It had been here after my coma, but it was only for a short period of time before I passed out.

The island got bigger and bigger until I could see the beach. Throngs of people were gathered around the shoreline, waiting for me.

I smiled and waved frantically at them, and they waved back. Vaughn smiled and leaned on the railing, the ocean spray hitting us both in the face as we zoomed into the dock.

Running off the boat and onto the dock, I was attacked by my best friend, Julia, Natalie, and Lanna. They ran right into me, and we all nearly fell into the ocean! Screaming, we all caught our balance and managed to stay upright and dry.

Laughing, we ran off the dock onto the beach where it was safe. Vaughn followed slowly behind us, smiling slightly.

"I've missed you so much, Chelsea!" Natalie said, hugging me tightly. "I visited you every week! You always looked so peaceful… until near the end. You started looking scared and restless."

"Really?" I asked. Suddenly, memories of the horrifying dreams I had had rushed through my mind. Being chased through the dark by a mysterious figure… Being eaten by a giant bunny… Finding myself trapped in a six-year olds bedroom by a vengeful stuffed dog… and the fire. That one was most vivid in my memory. I could still see Vaughn rushing into the flames, screaming my chicken's name, "Valerie! Valerie!"

"Chelsea?" Lanna asked, waving her hand in front of my face. "You ok? It looks you just saw a ghost."

"Huh… what?" I asked, snapping out of my thoughts. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine…" I didn't tell anyone about my dreams, not even Vaughn. I just didn't want to relive them. Even if they seemed stupid and funny, they were terrifying for me, even the bunny one. I do have to admit, the bugs screaming "Head for the hills!" was pretty funny… but still.

All the villagers began hugging me and saying how much they had missed me and were glad I was better. I could just nod, smile, and thank them. I couldn't wait to get back to my farm… Who had looked after my crops and Valerie?

Oh, wait. I dreamt I had bought Valerie. She didn't exist. But everything had seemed so real, like it was actually happening. But in truth, it had all just been a dream I dreamt during a coma.

But it's weird how some parts of my dream turned out to be real. Like Vaughn being the collapse and how he had gotten fired. As my father would say, the mind works in mysterious ways.

My father… Tears sprung to my eyes at the thought of him. He had recently died after being put in a critical state during a car accident. According to him and my little sister, Jill, my mother had died instantly.

"Chelsea?" Julia was looking straight at me. How did she get there? Last time I checked, I was talking, or rather listening, to Charlie ramble on about some new electric car he got while I was "away".

"What?" I snapped my attention away from my father to Julia.

"Where do you keep going off to?" she asked. "It's like you're in your own little bubble."

"Oh, sorry…" I muttered. "I was just thinking about stuff…"

"Well, my mom wanted to know if you'd join us for supper tonight." Julia asked.

My eating supper with Julia and her family was a regular occurrence. At least it was until the house fell down on top of me… All of a sudden, I realized Mirabelle had been alone for two straight years. Since Julia was in a coma and Vaughn was living in the jungle with the natives (she just didn't know that part then), Mirabelle had been left alone. That must have been terrible!

"So will you join us?" Julia asked again. Stop dreaming, Chelsea! You can think later, when people AREN'T trying to talk to you!

"Sure, I'd love to," I said happily. I still wasn't exactly paying attention, but I could tell Julia was happy.

A few minutes later, the beach was clear and the only people that remained were me and Vaughn.

"I'm so glad to be back…" I said, closing my eyes and letting the warmth of the setting sun hit my face.

I could tell Vaughn was watching me. Sure enough, when I opened my eye just a crack, he was. A small smile was plastered across his face, and his violet eyes were bright.

I suddenly threw my arms around him in a hug. "You're happy…" I whispered.

"Why wouldn't I be?" he asked, looking down at me.

"I don't know," I muttered. "You just always look so sad."

"That's because I had my heart closed out to everything and everyone," Vaughn explained. "But then I met you, and realized the world wasn't all that bad."

I smiled at him.

"You know, when my boat crashed and I nearly died," Vaughn said. "I thought about just jumping off the rock into the waves. They would've killed me instantly… But then I thought about you, and everyone else. I realized then I had something to live for; that my life was terrible. I had family and friends who loved and cared about me."

I could feel my smile growing wider. "But then why did you stay in the jungle, even after the bridge was fixed?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "Something just told me to stay… that'd I leave when the time was right. And that time was when you came and found me."

Suddenly, Vaughn's lips were pressed against mine in a kiss.

I didn't realize Julia had walked onto the beach looking for us until she screamed, louder than the time at the table. Vaughn and I pulled apart. Julia's mouth was wide open as if she were still screaming. It looked very comical, if you ask me.

"Y-You… You… were… just… KISSING?" she screamed. She began running in circles on the sand screaming, until she fell fast first. She got back up, sand covering her body and face, and continued screaming.

I ran up to her and clamped my hand over her mouth. "Shut up!" I hissed.

Julia pried away my hand. "But you guys were just… kissing." She said "kissing" like it was a bad word and she was a five year old.

"Yeah, so?" I snapped.

"That means you guys like each other?" Julia said, shocked.

"No," I said sarcastically. "It means we hate each other! Of course we like each other!"

"It's not fair…" she pouted. "You get a sexy cowboy and I get a nerd…"

I turned to look at Vaughn and saw a horrified look on his face. His eyes were big and wide and his mouth was hanging open in shock

I looked back at Julia like she was crazy. "Dude," I said, smacking her across the head. "He's your COUSIN. Have you been into the coffee again? I thought your mother put you on a one-cup-a-week coffee diet."

Julia looked down at the ground guiltily. "I kind of stole the coffee pot…" she murmured.

"You're so impossible," I groaned, rolling my eyes at her.

Julia looked back up at me. "So, are you guys coming to dinner or what?"

I looked back at Vaughn. "Yeah, we're coming."

As we all walked away I said, "I still can't believe you said that Vaughn was sexy… Not that I disagree..."

Julia shrugged. "Coffee does strange things to my mind…"

"Yeah, I kind of figured…" I muttered.

**Me: Hello, and welcome to Walking in the Devasted Area Talk Show. Or, for short, WDA Talk Show! Our first guest for the show is... Julia!**

**Julia: Helloooo-ooo!**

**Me: So, Julia, do you really have a caffeine problem?**

**Julia: Uh... no. But I DO have a _small_ sugar problem.**

**Me: How _small_ are we talkin' here?**

**Julia: Well... I can only have five grams of sugar every two weeks, otherwise I go really hyper.**

**Me: O_O And you call THAT small?**


	2. Strawberry Rice Cakes

**UPDATE! This chapter is kind of boring at the beginning, but gets more exciting. Unfortunately, the first few chapters will be a bit boring before the plot starts to develope :P Just bear with me, and I promise you won't regret it :D**

**Ok, so I'm trying to keep all the characters... in-character. As you've probably figured out, Julia's hyperactive and eccentric in my mind. But Sabrina will be in-character for this, but like one other character might be _slightly_ OOC. I'll try to keep them as in-character as possible, though. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Strawberry Rice Cakes

When we walked into Mirabelle's shop, a waft of smells drifted through the air to the door.

"Mom's making a huge meal," Julia explained.

"Just for us?" I asked, astounded.

Julia thought for a moment. "I don't know..." she said, shrugging. "Maybe. Hey Mom!"

"What is it, Julia?" Mirabelle called from the kitchen.

"Is anyone else coming?" Julia screamed at her mother.

"Taro and his family," Mirabelle said.

Julia turned to me. "Yep," she said. "Taro and─"

"I know," I said, cutting her off. "I heard."

"Oh," Julia said quietly.

She led Vaughn and I into the kitchen, even though we both knew very well were it was. Pots and pans were lying out on the stove, full of boiling water or vegetables, and a cutting board was on the counter, pieces of meat strewn across it.

"Do you need help?" Julia asked her mother, seeing how busy she was.

"No," Mirabelle said quickly. "I don't need any help." If I didn't know better, I'd think Mirabelle was being mean. But in truth, Julia just can't cook. I wouldn't want her touching my meals either.

"Oh, ok," Julia said, and walked over to where Vaughn and I were standing.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to say something, a knock sounded on the door.

"I'll get it!" Julia screeched, and raced to the door, which she yanked open. Standing outside were Natalie, Elliot, Taro, and Felicia.

"Hello!" Felicia chimed cheerily. She was holding a pot of something wrapped in a cloth.

"Mom!" Julia called to the kitchen. "Felicia and her family are here!"

"Well show them inside!" Mirabelle called back, sounding a bit frazzled.

"Ok," Julia said. "Come inside!" she opened the door wider, and the family walked in. Felicia showed herself to the kitchen, where she began babbling on about something to Mirabelle.

Julia began talking to Natalie as the two walked to the kitchen, where Vaughn and I were still awkwardly standing. Elliot and Taro lingered for a bit in the doorway, before joining everyone else in the kitchen.

Felicia had apparently brought over some gratin. "Is there fish in that?" Julia asked eagerly, once I told her that you could put fish in gratin.

"Uh... no." Felicia said. "I know you don't like fish, Julia."

"What do you think Mirabelle's making?" I asked. Julia, Vaughn, Natalie, Elliot, and I were all standing in a circle by the kitchen doorway.

"She's making steamed egg custard," Julia said. "She told me earlier today."

"Probably stir-fried veggies..." Vaughn said with a shudder.

"What's so bad about stir-fried veggies?" Elliot asked, sounding a little hurt.

"The vegetables," Vaughn snapped.

"There's nothing wrong with vegetables," Julia said matter-of-factly. "They're healthy for you. Especially carrots."

Vaughn glared evilly at his cousin, as she knew very well Vaughn despised carrots.

"Fish are good for you, too," I put in, coming to Vaughn's rescue.

Julia made this disgusted face and shook her head. "Never mind then," she said, grossed out.

Vaughn gave me a grateful look. I smiled back at him.

"Do you think Mirabelle's making fruit sandwiches?" Natalie asked, changing the subject back to dinner. "I LOVE fruit sandwiches."

"She probably did," Julia said. "She knows you like them. She tried to make everyone's favourite. She made yogurt for me, porridge for Vaughn, and I'm pretty sure she made spaghetti for Chelsea."

"Yay!" I cheered. I absolutely LOVED spaghetti. Pretty much anything Italian, really.

"This is going to be one weird meal," Natalie said, laughing. "Breakfast and Italian?"

Julia shrugged. "Mom likes to be on everybody's side," she said.

"What's Taro's favourite food?" I asked Natalie.

"He likes elli leaves, even though that's not exactly food," Natalie said. "Oh, and tofu."

"What else would Mirabelle make?" Elliot asked.

"Anything with eggs and mushrooms... and cheese." Julia said. "Mom loves cheese."

"I think she's making sushi," Natalie said, glancing over at the kitchen.

"No!" Julia gasped. "Mom would never make ANYTHING with fish if I'm in the room."

"Or maybe it's cheese fondue..." Natalie added.

"It's probably cheese fondue," Julia said, letting out a sigh of relief. "She likes cheese, remember?"

"Yeah, its cheese fondue," Elliot said, looking where his sister was.

"How do you confuse SUSHI with CHEESE FONDUE?" Vaughn said. "I mean, one's made with fish and the other's made with cheese. They're not even similar!"

Natalie gave Vaughn a death glare, and turned back to everyone else.

"How much food is she cooking?" I asked.

Julia shrugged. "A lot I guess..." she said. "There are eight people eating it."

"True..." I muttered.

"I hope she makes pudding!" Natalie said.

"She's making baked apple, pineapple pie, chocolate banana, and strawberry rice cake for dessert," Julia said. "I know because I picked them out."

"Ooh, strawberry rice cake!" Natalie cried joyfully. "Even better!"

"I'm gonna be so fat after this," I murmured.

Everyone laughed at that.

After about fifteen more minutes of guessing, Mirabelle called us over to the table. She had put two tables together to fit everyone... and all the food.

She had made insalata di caprese, gazpacho, miso soup, roasted corn, baked yam, grilled and foiled mushroom, stir-fried veggies, fruit sandwich, dinner roll, tofu, cheese fondue, steamed egg custard, porridge, mushroom and matsutake rice, spaghetti, baked apple, pineapple pie, chocolate bananas and strawberry rice cake. Plus, the gratin that Felicia had brought over. Mirabelle had also put some water, milk, and hot milk on the table.

Everyone began piling food up on their plates. It was actually a good thing Mirabelle had made so much food, as all of us were starving.

I was pretty sure Vaughn ate the least amount of food, considering lots of the meal consisted of vegetables. Julia had to check with Mirabelle to make sure nothing had fish, and Elliot couldn't eat anything dairy, since he's lactose intolerant. Not to mention Natalie wouldn't touch half the food because they had mushrooms. I hadn't realized how picky everyone on the island was. But I guess all people have their likes and dislikes.

As everyone finished their dinner, Mirabelle put dessert on the table. I could almost see the near dread in Taro's eyes, considering he had eaten at least five helpings of tofu. Natalie went straight for the strawberry rice cakes, practically diving across the table for them.

"Natalie, dear, I know you like fruit," her mother said calmly. "But really, there is no need to act like an animal. You're neatly twenty-one years old, not two!"

Natalie blushed a shade of pink that greatly resembled her hair colour, and nibbled away at her rice cake like a rabbit.

Vaughn had one or two chocolate covered bananas, and quietly sat at the table waiting for everyone else. He never liked eating in big groups, and I could see the anxiousness in his eyes for this night to be over.

Eventually, it did end. Natalie finished off her umpteenth strawberry rice cake, and Felicia and Mirabelle began clearing the table. Taro began babbling away to his grandson about how well he thinks the next turnip crop will do, and Natalie started complimenting Mirabelle endlessly on how delicious her fruit sandwiches were, and how much she enjoyed the strawberry rice cakes.

Vaughn and I both kind of sat there in silence, not really saying anything. Vaughn reached under the table and grasped my hand, as if using me as an anchor not to run out of the room screaming.

Ok, I love Vaughn, but he needs to learn to be more social.

After the table was all cleared, everyone moved into the small living room just off the shop, where Mirabelle had conviently moved the couch to. No more skating across the floor and crashing, for me. At least, I hope not...

Taro continued his conversation with Elliot about turnips, and Felicia and Mirabelle started to gossip about this and that. Natalie kept chattering about someone named Pierre and how much she loved his cooking. I pretended to listen, and nodded occasionally when she looked expectantly at me. Julia was staring dreamily at Elliot, which was kind of starting to freak me out.

Now even I was waiting impatiently for this night to end.

At around 8:30 pm, Taro began complaining about how late is was, and herded his family home. Once they were gone, Mirabelle began washing the dozens of dirty dishes while humming a cheery tune. Julia raced up to her home to do who knows what, leaving Vaughn and I alone. In the living room.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, just like we had done at supper. Suddenly, I let out an exasperated sigh and leaned my head against Vaughn's shoulder.

"I've become too soft..." I murmured, my eyes drifting shut. "My parents used to have dinners two times as big and long..." Tears started to well in my eyes. I was still getting over their death. Just two weeks ago they were both alive and well.

Vaughn wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and rested his head on the top of mine.

"It's ok," he whispered, seeming to sense my distress. Either that or he saw me crying.

I buried my face in his chest, and continued to cry. Vaughn started gently stroking my hair, and held me tightly. I eventually stopped crying, and looked up at Vaughn.

His purple eyes were bright and shining, and a small smile was spread across his lips. He lifted my chin with his hand, and kissed me.

The kiss was soft and sweet. His hands moved from my face, down to my waist as I wrapped my arms around his neck. His lips were surprisingly soft and warm.

As we pulled away, Vaughn reached up and wiped away a few stray tears from my face with his thumb.

We both smiled at each other, my arms still around his neck. "Come on," Vaughn said, nodding towards the door. "I'll take you home."

**Me: Ok, I've decided to do something different for this story. Instead of every chapter having the talk show on it, only the odd-numbered chapters will. Like 3, 5, 7, 9... That way, I won't run out of characters as fast and won't have to have Harvest Sprites and ~s or ^s as guests. So, in this chapter I tried to make the kiss a bit more descriptive :P I feel so romantic! I'm also working on my writing, so I may not update as quick as the last story -.- It took me FORVER to write this story, because at first I couldn't think of what to write, then I thought it was boring and tried to change it but I couldn't. So I tried to make it as exciting as possible, and I kept having to stop to go do SOMETHING. Not to mention I was working on keeping everyong in-character and trying to make my writing better T_T *sigh* Ok, enough of my ranting...**


	3. The Perfect Matchmaker

**Ok, soooo now I'm starting to try to apply more things from the last story into this story :P Like, how Julia was trying to be matchmaker for Vaughn and Chelsea :D Vaughn does seem a bit OOC, but it's only because he's now more comfortable around Chelsea... as a scene later in this chapter shows :) I'm trying to make Julia less hyperactive and all that crap, without totally disrupting the first chapter. Vaughn gets more in-character later in the chapter, too. I'm still working as best as I can on that in-character stuff, and suggestions will be greatly appreciated and used.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. CURSE YOU SANTA!**

The Perfect Matchmaker

I woke up the next morning to the sun shining through the windows and a cow mooing.

"I don't wanna milk the cow..." I grumbled unhappily, rolling onto my stomach and burying my head in the pillow.

My eyes snapped open. Cow...? Since when do I have a cow? Last time I checked, the barn in the back of my farm was completely empty, except for a food dispenser and two feed troughs. There was no COW in it! I'd think I'd notice if I had a cow!

I sprung out of bed like it was on fire and raced to the window. There was no cow... Just lots of snow and some patches of grass poking out. Yet, I could hear it mooing somewhere in the background.

Quickly, I got dressed in a pair of jeans and my yellow shirt, threw on my winter coat and boots, and ran out the door.

The cold air stung my throat and nose as I breathed, and my cheeks were already beginning to turn pink. The icy winter wind blew across the barren farm, causing my hair to fly everywhere. My coat had slug off my shoulders and was now resting on my forearms, caused by my ignorance to zipper it.

I burst through the barn door, and was greeted by a small calf mooing happily as someone brushed it.

And that someone happened to have silver hair with a Stetson on his head.

"Vaughn?" I coughed, my throat still freezing from the cold air I had inhaled. "What are you doing in my barn... and whose cow is that?"

Vaughn looked up from the baby cow, a small smile plastered across his face. "I'm brushing _your_ cow." He said smugly.

"What...?" I mumbled, trying to process the whole thing in my still-sleepy mind. "I don't have a cow."

"You do now," Vaughn beamed proudly.

"What...?" I repeated, still hopelessly confused. "Where'd I get it?"

"I got it for you," Vaughn said quietly, his cheeks turning deep red. And I was pretty sure it wasn't from the fact that it was below freezing in the barn.

I smiled widely. "Why?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know..." he murmured. "I just thought you'd need a cow..."

I flung my arms around his neck in a hug. "Thank you," I said happily. "But you know, I could have bought it myself."

"I know," Vaughn said as I pulled away from him. "I just wanted to give you a surprise."

I smiled joyfully at him, and knelt down next to my new baby cow. "Awww," I cooed. "What's her name?"

Vaughn shrugged again. "Whatever you want," he said.

I thought for a minute. I would call her Valerie, but I was saving that for my first chicken...

"How about Ella?" I asked, my smiled growing wider. Vaughn gave me a questionable look, like the one he had given me in my dream about naming my chicken Valerie.

"Why are you so picky about names?" I scoffed.

Vaughn raised an eyebrow at me. "I didn't say anything," he said, confused.

"Yeah, but you had that look," I said, pointing to his face.

"What look?" Vaughn asked.

"The one you gave me in my dream about naming my chicken Valerie!" I said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, you have to admit, Valerie is a pretty weird name..." he said. "Especially for a chicken."

"It is not!" I pouted. "And I'm naming my chicken Ella, no matter what you say!"

"I didn't say anything about naming your cow Ella," Vaughn said. "I think it's a perfect name for a cow,"

I stood up off the ground and dusted myself off. Walking over to Vaughn, I said, "Well then stop making that face,"

"I'm not making any face," Vaughn said, smirking.

"Then what's this?" I asked, waving my finger in front of his lips.

"A smile," he said matter-of-factly.

"That's face, isn't it?" I asked. We were now standing face to face. Well, as face to face as a six foot tall cowboy and a fiver foot eight farmer could be.

"I guess it is," Vaughn said, giving in.

I smiled, and wrapped my arms around his neck as he grabbed my waist. We stood like that for a minute or two before he was leaning down and kissing me.

It was another sweet kiss, but this one made my knees go weak for some reason. I had to grasp onto Vaughn, or else I would fall down. His grip around my waist tightened, and he pulled me closer. This caused my legs to fully give out, and now Vaughn was completely holding me up.

We would have stayed like that for who knows how long, if it hadn't been for Ella, who angrily charged at my ass, causing me to let go of Vaughn and fall down. I swear, I could see a small grin on that cow's face.

Vaughn raised a suspicious eyebrow at me, obviously not realizing it was the damn calf's fault. I pointed annoyingly at Ella, who was munching triumphantly on some fodder.

"She rammed into me!" I told him accusingly.

Vaughn rolled his eyes, and helped me up. Just as he was doing so, a small giggle arose from outside the barn.

"What was that?" Vaughn said quietly, regaining his cold voice and harsh face.

I shrugged, and we both walked out of the barn. A scream erupted as we opened the door, and I saw a flash of blonde hair disappear behind the barn. My feet crunching against the snow, I walked to where the flash had disappeared to, and found Julia.

She was smiling widely, and holding her mittened hands against her pink cheeks.

"I knew it!" she squealed. "I knew my plan would work! I'm the perfect matchmaker!"

I looked quizzically at her. "What plan? What are you talking about?" I asked.

"My plan!" Julia said, as if it was something everyone knew about. "Remember how when you guys first met, I tried to get you together?"

I nodded, recalling the night when Julia made Vaughn and I sit beside each at the table.

"It worked!" she said proudly. "I knew it would! I just knew you guys would get together!"

"Then why did you act so surprised when you saw us kissing?" I asked.

Julia shrugged. "I never expected it would happen _that_ fast," she said. "It took me years for Vaughn to even hug me, and I'm his cousin!"

"Well why were you spying on us... again?" I demanded, remembering the last time Julia had been spying on Vaughn and me at the beach.

Again, Julia shrugged. "I was bored..." she muttered.

"Then go spy on your boyfriend!" Vaughn said, obviously annoyed.

"I don't have a boyfriend!" Julia said defensively.

The two cousins went into a death glare battle, while I stood awkwardly beside Vaughn.

"Uh..." I said eventually, clearing my throat. "Are we going anywhere with this?"

Julia and Vaughn stopped their death glare match, and turned to me.

We didn't say a word for a few minutes, so the cousins turned back to each other.

"I am sick and tired of you following me everywhere, God damnit!" Vaughn fumed. Julia seemed to shrink down to the size of a pea, cowering beneath the anger of her cousin.

"I'm sorry..." she squeaked.

Vaughn squinted angrily at her, and turned around and stomped away. I looked at Julia, who was beginning to compose herself, and then ran after Vaughn.

**Me: Hello, and welcome to WDA Talk Show! Our guest this chapter is Elliot!**

**Elliot: *clears throat* Hello!**

**Me: So, how are you?**

**Elliot: ...Good, I guess.**

**Me: Good. Now, about the story. Do you think there was any OOC in this chapter?**

**Elliot: ... Yeah... Julia still seemed a bit hyperactive, and Vaughn seemed... chatty at the beginning.**

**Me: *nods* I know, still trying to fix that. I'm trying my best though!**

**Elliot: And that's the best thing to do. I better get going before Grandpa comes looking for me... *walks off***

**Me: You see, that was me saying that I need to work on my characters. Because Elliot wasn't actually here. I hope you know that. 'Cause if you don't, I'm sorry to break it to ya but, Elliot's not real. **


	4. Look A Like Hero

**I REALLY like this chapter... :D I've been planning it in my mind for a few days now. This will be a short A/N, cause I have to get my glasses fixed (the nosepiece fell out :O)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Look-A-Like Hero

I stood, leaning against the side of my house, staring at Vaughn, who was staring right back. I had managed to catch up to him and stop him before he left my property.

"What is it?" he said, a large hint of annoyance in his voice.

"What are you ticked about?" I asked, stepping away from my house.

"Julia," Vaughn said, rudely pointing to where his cousin was running towards us, her blonde hair flying everywhere. "She's always following me or annoying me..."

"That's no reason to scream," I said calmly. "Vaughn, you're twenty-four years old, for God's sake! Not three! I'm very sure you could have handled that better."

Vaughn grunted.

Julia was now standing beside me, panting like a dog. "Vaughn..." she managed to say. "I'm... I'm sorry."

Vaughn stared at her angrily, his eyes squinting.

"Vaughn..." I said, placing my hand on his shoulder. He didn't move; just continued staring at his cousin.

"V-Vaughn...?" Julia asked quietly. It was weird what one of Vaughn's death stares could do to you. "I really am sorry... I swear I won't follow you EVER again."

Vaughn looked her over. "How can I believe you?"

"Please, Vaughn," Julia said. "I don't know what I'd do if you were mad at me forever! Sure, we don't get along great and aren't particularly fond of each other, but you're my cousin and I love you."

Vaughn stiffened when she said "I love you". It seemed like those words were poison to him. Even from me.

"Please," Julia shuffled a bit closer to him. "Please forgive me,"

Vaughn didn't say a word; just stood there like a statue, thinking. Finally, he sighed. "Fine," he mumbled. "Just don't do it again!"

And with that, he walked away. Julia let out a deep breath.

"Thanks, Chels," she said, gratefully.

"For what?" I asked. For all I knew, I didn't do anything but stop the man from leaving.

Julia shrugged. "Just... thanks," she too then walked away, leaving me standing by the side of my house, the cold winter breeze blowing my hair everywhere.

* * *

Two days later, Vaughn left for the city, looking for another job. He hoped to get his old one back, but wasn't too sure on it. But he had been gone for two years... You never know.

The island felt empty with him gone. The fact that it was almost Starry Night didn't help, either. Everyone was getting ready, decorating their houses or cooking huge meals.

Vaughn promised he'd be back in time for Winter 25th, but as the day drew nearer, I became sceptical. Julia said that I could spend the holiday with her and Mirabelle, if I wanted.

"It is, after all, the season for friends and family," she had said with a smile. And since my family was in the city or... dead, I'd have to settle for friends.

Oh, poor Jill! She must be so lonely... she never was the best at making friends, and Grandma's the only family member she's got. I wish she could come visit, but none of us have the money for a boat ticket, especially now with everyone travelling.

Sighing, I leaned away from the cookbook I had been studying. I was trying to find a simple and delicious meal to cook for Starry Night... that is, if Vaughn comes back in time.

I picked up the book and continued flipping through the dozens of pages filled with recipes and too-good-to-be-true pictures of food. I scanned the titles and recipes, wondering if I had the right ingredients and skill for this recipe or that.

Suddenly, the pages ended. I had gone through the entire book, and not found a single thing good enough to cook. Maybe I should try learning some new recipes to add to my cookbook...

Jumping out of my chair, I practically threw the cookbook back onto the shelf and dashed for my coat. I ran out the door, nearly forgetting to close it.

As I ran through West Town, I heard Felicia call from the well where she and Mirabelle were talking.

"Don't run, Chelsea!" she said. "You're going to slip and fall on the ice!"

I waved and nodded, but just as I was about to start walking, a patch of ice appeared on the path in front of me, and I slipped.

* * *

Just as my head was about to hit the hard ground, someone wrapped their arms around my waist and pulled me up. I found myself staring into icy blue eyes, with silver hair falling messily into them.

At first I thought it had been Vaughn, before the fact triggered in my mind that Vaughn had PURPLE eyes, not blue. But this guy looked so much like Vaughn... it was actually kind of scary.

"Chelsea!" Mirabelle's shriek brought me out of my thoughts. "Oh my Goddess, are you ok, dear?"

The man who had saved me let go, and I stood up, making sure to stay away from the ice. "I-I'm fine," I said, still a little shaky and confused.

"Thank goodness," Felicia breathed. "I told you not to run! And look what happened; you almost fell on the ice!"

Felicia reminded me so much of my own mother. Grateful on minute, and scolding the other. I couldn't help but smile.

Mirabelle scooted over to the blue-eyed man that had saved me. "Thank you so much for saving Chelsea," she said.

The man smiled. "You're welcome," he said. "Is she your daughter?"

"No," Mirabelle laughed. "But sometimes I think of her like that. Chelsea's actually the local farmer."

I turned around and looked at the man. Just like Vaughn, he had shoulder-length silver hair and the same eyes, just blue. He was wearing a silver leopard print shirt, purple pants, and black shoes. A sly smile was plastered triumphantly across his face.

"Chelsea," he repeated. "What a beautiful name... I'm Skye." He held out his hand to me, and I quickly shook it. Something about this guy freaked me out...

"Uh, hi..." I said warily. "Um, thanks for saving me..."

"Of course," Skye said cheerily. "Anything to help a maiden in distress."

"Mom! Mom!" we all turned to see Julia running giddily up the path, with Vaughn in tow.

**Ok, short A/N! **

**Please review!**


	5. Maiden What Cha Ma Call It

**Finally got an update in! I couldn't think of what to write for the next chapter, but I finally thought of something. Skye is going to be really important for this story's plot. At first he was supposed to be insignificant, but then I had an idea. *lightbulb* It's better than my original, sooo...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters.**

**Oh, my "O" key is acting up, so I'm sorry if any "O's" are missing.**

Maiden What-Cha-Ma-Call-It

"Vaughnie!" I burst out, even though I knew he didn't like being called that. I ran towards him as fast as I could, despite the recent incident. Sometimes it took lessons for then one try to get into my mind. I practically jumped into his arms, holding him tight. He was here in time for Starry Night!

"Uh, hi Chelsea," Vaughn said, a bit confused.

Mirabelle was soon at Julia's side with Felicia.

"Vaughn, honey, we were so worried you weren't going to make it home in time for Starry Night," Mirabelle explained.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten about Skye. But Julia must have noticed him, because while everyone was gushing over Vaughn, she said, "Uh, Mom? What's up with the freaky Vaughn look-a-like?"

Hearing his name and "look-a-like" caught Vaughn's attention, before he was gently putting me back on the ground and looking where Julia was pointing.

I could practically see the horror spread across his face. When I turned to Skye, almost the exact same expression was on his face.

"W-Who is this?" Vaughn whispered to me.

"Uh, this is Skye," I said loud enough for Skye to hear. "Skye," I called to the leopard print shirt wearing man and motioned him to come over.

He did so, but warily. "Skye," I said, and waved my hand towards Vaughn. "This is Vaughn,"

"...Hi..." Skye said cautiously.

"Hello," Vaughn said, squinting his eyes until they were little slits.

The two silver-haired men stood, staring at each other for a few minutes. Julia, Mirabelle, Felicia, and I just watched them watch each other.

"...This is weird..." Skye finally said, diminishing the silence.

Vaughn continued staring at Skye, not saying anything. He actually reached up and touched his face, as if making sure he wasn't dead and looking at someone else lead is life or something.

Suddenly, the sound of feet scuffling against the stone filled the silent air. We all turned ─except Vaughn and Skye who were still intently staring at each other─ to see Natalie walking up the path. She froze when she saw all our eyes on her, her brown eyes darting back and forth.

"Uh..." she said, probably noticing that there was some guy who looked a lot like Vaughn dressed as one of those freaky male fashion designers who call you "darling," and "hon". "What's up with the dude?"

Skye turned his attention to Natalie, realizing the "dude" was him. He seemed angry, but when he saw who was disturbing his glare-fight, his face lit up and his eyes opened huge and wide.

We all stood there in silence while Skye gaped at Natalie. He began madly twiddling his fingers, and he began twitching like he was trying not to do something he did a lot.

"Um, Skye?" Felicia asked, stepping forward a bit. "Are you ok?"

"Y-Yes..." Skye muttered.

"You don't look ok," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. I was worried about him... What if he was sick? He had saved my life, after all.

"I-I'm fine..." Skye said, and quickly ran away.

Once he had disappeared, Julia spoke up. "That was, well, weird..." she said.

"You can say that again..." Natalie said, sighing. "We should go after him. Something could be wrong."

Without waiting for an answer, Natalie dashed after Skye. The rest of us stood there awkwardly.

"He looks a lot like you, Vaughn," Mirabelle said, cutting through the silence.

"It's kind of freaky," Julia said.

Vaughn just gave them both a dirty look, and turned away. Just then, a thought struck me.

"Vaughn..." I said, grabbing him by the shoulders and turned him towards me. "What colour hair did your little brother, Jonathon, have?"

"Brown," Vaughn said, shrugging away from me. "Why are you even asking that? I told you; he died. There's no way Skye could be Jonathon. Skye has silver hair, not brown. Plus, they have different names."

"Still," I said. "How could someone look so much like you and not be a relative?"

"His eyes did look a lot like Julia's," Felicia added.

"But Jonathon's dead!" Vaughn snapped. "Skye can't possibly b─"

A high-pitched scream pierced the air, cutting Vaughn off. We all stared at each other with bewildered looks, and then ran towards where the scream had come from.

We ended up in the forest, near the river. Skye was there, a smug expression on his face, talking to Natalie. She seemed to be stuck, unable to move. By the look of anger on her face, you could tell she was not happy and was thinking of at least twenty ways to kill Skye.

"Natalie!" Felicia's voice cried out. She ran towards her daughter. Skye had stopped talking, and was now looking at us with an annoyed look.

"Are you ok, Natalie?" Felicia asked, looking over her daughter.

"No!" Natalie screamed. "That bastard froze me!"

"What?" Felicia asked, most likely wondering if she had heard her daughter correctly. "How could he _freeze_ you?"

"I don't know!" Natalie cried. "But he did! I found him staring at the water, asked if he was ok, and the next thing I know, he's shouting 'maiden-chick beam' and froze me!"

All our gazes turned to Skye, who was unsuccessfully trying to go unseen into the forest.

"Maiden-chick beam?" Julia asked. "What the hell is that?"

"Julia!" Mirabelle scolded her daughter.

"This," Skye said coolly, ignoring Mirabelle. "Maiden-chick beam!" a flash of white erupted and I found myself frozen to the ground, unable to move.

As I looked around as best as I could, I realized that Julia, Mirabelle, and Felicia were also frozen.

Well this was weird...

"Skye!" Julia screamed. "What did you do to me?"

Skye slinked over to Julia, smiling. "Why, darling, I froze you," he said calmly.

"Why?" I yelled.

"Because I can," Skye said, walking over to me.

All of a sudden, Vaughn was lunging at Skye. He grabbed him the collar of his leopard shirt, and pinned him against a tree.

"You unfreeze them right now, damnit," Vaughn hissed through gritted teeth.

"Sorry," Skye said, struggling to get out of Vaughn's hold. "Can't do that,"

"What the hell do you mean?" Vaughn demanded.

"I can't unfreeze them!" Skye said. "I can only freeze them. They're stuck like that."

Felicia let out a terrified scream, and if she could move, would have probably fainted.

"Not permanently!" Skye said, chuckling a little bit.

"For how long?" Vaughn asked, shoving Skye against the tree again.

"I-I don't know," Skye said, a bit afraid of Vaughn. "An hour or so..."

Vaughn let go of Skye, who fell to the ground with an "oof". He blinked a few times, then got up and dusted himself off.

"There's something wrong with that boy..." I heard Vaughn mutter as he walked past me.

And he was definitely right.

**Me: Hello, and welcome to WDA Talk Show! Our guest today is Skye!**

**Skye: Hehe... Hello.**

**Me: Ok... so, do you like the role you play in this story?**

**Skye: Hehe... yes, because it's who I am. **

**Me: Um... ok. What's up with the 'hehe'?**

**Skye: *shrugs* It's just something I do... Hehe.**

**Me: O_O You sound like a little girl.**

**Skye: I get that a lot... Hehe.**

**Me: I have one more question. Why do you dress like a confused large cat?**

**Skye: T_T Because I like to! Gosh... Don't you just looove these snazzy purple pants?**

**Me: *looks at pants* They look like girl pants. I think my little sister has a pair JUST like them...**

**Skye: *glares at* Maiden-chick-**

**Me: Don't do the maiden beam thing. *holds up hand* I'm done insulting you. Time for compliments. I love you hair...**

**Skye: *smiles* Thank you.**

**Me: Your eyes too. They're pretty. They do really look like Julia's eyes.**

**Skye: Is that an insult or a compliment?**

**Me: Oh, look, we're out of time! Bye!**


	6. I'm Blue, Oh No Wait, I'm

**I'm sorry that this chapter is so short... It just works out well this way. I promise the next chapters will be MUCH longer :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon, any of its characters, or I'm Blue by Eiffel 65.**

I'm Blue... Oh no Wait I'm-

Half an hour later, Natalie and Julia had both lost it. Natalie couldn't wait to strangle Skye, and Julia was too bouncy. Natalie stood near the water mumbling curses and maniacal plans on how to murder Skye without being arrested, while Julia talked our ears off to get out her energy.

"Bunnies are so cute!" she squealed. "Don't you agree Vaughn?"

Vaughn grunted. He was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest, watching us. Skye standing as far away from the cowboy as possible, practically hiding in the bushes.

Suddenly, Julia got all quiet. Looking at her out of the corner of my eye, I realized she was deep in thought by the expression on her face.

"Hey, Skye," she said finally.

"Yes," Skye said, slinking out of the bushes. He walked over to her, a sly smile on his face.

"Is Skye your real name?" Julia asked.

Skye's face turned a bright pink, and he looked suddenly nervous.

"O-Of course it is," he stuttered, eyeing her.

"No it isn't," Natalie scoffed. "I can tell you're lying."

"Pfft," Skye said, shaking his head. "No you can't,"

"Yeah, I can," Natalie said. "I'm a championship liar. I know you're lying."

"They have lying championships?" I asked, looking at Vaughn best I could, who just shrugged and turned his attention back to Skye and Natalie.

Skye narrowed his eyes and glared at her.

"So is Skye you're real name or not?" Julia piped in.

Skye spun around and looked at us all. Sighing, he said, "No, it isn't..."

"Ha!" Natalie cried. "I knew─"

"_Yo, listen up here's a story about a little guy that lives in a blue world._"

"What the heck?" Vaughn said, leaning away from the tree. Techno music filled the quiet words, with nonsense lyrics.

"_And all day and all night and everything he sees, is just blue like him, inside and out._"

"What is that?" Julia asked, looking around at the trees as if finding the source of the music there.

"_Blue his house with a blue little window and a blue corvette. And everything is blue for him and himself and everybody around. 'Cause he ain't got nobody to listen to._"

"Oh my God, I love this song!" Felicia suddenly squealed. She began singing along with the pointless lyrics which made absolutely no sense.

"_I'm blue, da ba dee duba da, daba du de da... Duba duba dee da..._"

"Oh!" Skye exclaimed, jumping. "Sorry..." he reached into a purple pocket and pulled out an iPhone. Tapping the screen, he held the phone to his ear.

Vaughn rolled his eyes. "That guy is so stupid..."

"Vaughn!" Mirabelle scolded. "Be nice!"

"But he sat around listening to his damn ringtone for like a minute and didn't even realize it was his _ringtone_!" Vaughn protested, scowling.

"That song is so stupid," Natalie concluded. Under her breath, I heard her murmur, "Just another reason to kill him later..."

"Natalie, I don't think a man's ringtone is a reason to kill him," Mirabelle said. Oh, so I wasn't the only one who heard her.

"Mhmm, mhmm... I'd be glad to... When? Oh, ok. I'll try my best. Bye," Skye hung up his phone and put it away.

"Who was that?" Natalie asked.

"Oh, just a friend of mine..." Skye said, shrugging away the matter.

"So, back on topic..." Julia said regaining the fact that Skye wasn't... Skye's real name. "If Skye isn't your name, then what is?"

Skye looked at each of us, as if asking us to keep it a secret.

"It's..." he paused for dramatic effect. One of my pet peeves in when people do that. No one cares about effect! Just get to the damn point!

"Jonathon,"

**Me: :O BUHAHAHAHAHA! Me is mean... :P Ok, about the song... my dad started singing it like two days ago, and then he looked up the music video on YouTube. It is HILARIOUS! It was made in 1999, so the graphics are crap. The whole video in total is crap, actually. But it's funny crap :3 Seriously, you should look it up. Back to the story... what was Skye... or Jonathon, rather... talking about on the phone? It'll all make sense soon... :D**


	7. Family Tree

**Ok, so first off I'd like to apologize for anything that may seem confusing in this chapter. I'm going to be changing my back-up account (xXHarvestMoonLuvXx) avatar into the thing I described in this chapter. So, if you're confused, just check xXHarvestMoonLuvXx's avatar and it'll probably clear things up. Ok? Ok.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Family Tree

Vaughn's face went ghostly pale and his eyes opened wide.

"W-What did you say?" he stuttered.

"Jonathon," Skye said, sounding ashamed. "My real name's Jonathon."

Vaughn looked like he was going to throw up. He fell back against the tree, and held onto to it to steady himself. I would have rushed to his side, but I was still frozen by Skye's, or Jonathon's, maiden-chick beam thing.

"Oh my Lord…" Mirabelle whispered softly from her place beside Felicia.

Suddenly, Natalie was rushing towards Jonathon. She wrapped her arm around his neck and brought him to the ground.

"That's for freezing me," she whispered evilly into his ear.

"Natalie!" Felicia cried out in horror. "You let go of him this instant, young lady."

Natalie released Jonathon, who began coughing and gasping for air.

"There was no need for that," Felicia said, continuing her scolding.

Jonathon stood up and dusted himself off, quickly regaining his cool demeanor.

"H-How?" Vaughn asked, his voice quivering. He brought our attention to the matter at hand; the fact that Skye was actually Jonathon, Vaughn's supposedly dead younger brother.

"How what?" Jonathon asked, picking at a piece of mud-filled snow on his purple pants.

"How are you alive?" Vaughn asked.

"What do you mean?" Jonathon said, flicking away the piece of mud. "I'm alive just like you are."

"N-No," Vaughn shook his head. "You're supposed to be dead!"

"What?" Jonathon asked, squinting his eyes in confusion. "I don't know what you're talking about…"

"What's your last name?" Julia butted in.

"Anderson," Jonathon spat. "At least that's what I've been told…"

Vaughn's eyes grew even wider in shock. "By who?" he asked. "Who told you your last name was Anderson?"

"The people at the orphanage," Jonathon said. "They also said I had nearly died in a car crash, and they my parents and older brother _had_ died."

Vaughn stared at the leopard-clad man. "How old were you when it crashed?" he asked.

Jonathon shrugged. "They said I was only about five or six…" he mumbled. He began fiddling with the buttons on his jacket, as if uncomfortable with the discussion.

Vaughn sank a bit against the tree to the ground. He had told me that Jonathon was three years younger than him, and Vaughn's family had died when he was eight… making Jonathon the perfect age to be his brother.

I let out a deep sigh, watching my breath puff out in a big cloud. Suddenly realizing how cold it was, I began shivering. I wrapped my arms around myself to keep warm…

Wait. I could move! I was moving my arms! I was unfrozen! As I looked around, I saw that Mirabelle, Felicia, and Julia could all move as well.

But now that I could move, I honestly didn't feel like standing out in the middle of winter listening to Jonathon's life story.

As if she had read my mind, Julia said, "Hey guys, can we go discuss this someplace warmer? I'm freezing!"

Vaughn looked from me to Julia to Jonathon and back to me.

"Fine," he murmured, and without another word, began walking out of the forest. The rest of us trailed after him, the snow crunching beneath our feet.

* * *

We ended up in Mirabelle's living room, the heat turned on to full blast, hiding beneath big wool blankets. Natalie and Felicia had gone home, deciding that this wasn't their business. But me, being the nosy person I am, stuck around.

We sat in silence for a minute, before Jonathon began speaking again.

"I left the orphanage when I turned seventeen..." he said. "No idea where I was going... I just wanted to get away from there. I was hoping I could find some answers to my life. You know, put the puzzle back together."

Vaughn sat on the couch beside me, motionless, his face pale. He stared at the floor, his eyes unmoving from a small purple stain.

"Where did you stay?" Mirabelle asked Jonathon, worry etched into her voice. "Surely you didn't sleep on the streets!"

Jonathon slowly nodded. "I did," he said regretfully. "But after about a week I was found by the man who's my... um... boss now. He took me in and taught me all about his... craft. I'm his apprentice now."

"Oh!" Mirabelle said joyfully. "What do you do?"

Jonathon frowned. "Um..." he muttered, twiddling his fingers. "I, uh, travel the world and... look for... different types of curry! Yeah! I'm a curry chef."

"Wonderful!" Mirabelle cried.

"That's why I'm at this island," Jonathon said, his frown disappearing, along with his nervousness. "I was wondering if there might be any types of curry here not yet discovered to man!"

"Fantastic!" Mirabelle said. It seemed all her worry and fright from finding Jonathon was most likely her long-lost nephew faded into joy.

Jonathon beamed proudly. "Uh, yeah," he said. "I was actually talking to my boss back in the woods, on the phone. He was asking me to make a sample of any curry I find."

Mirabelle smiled right back at him.

Julia and I had been watching this whole spectacle from our places on the couch, while Vaughn remained quiet and almost lifeless. Glancing at him, I realized he had stopped staring at the purple stain and was now watching his aunt converse with his supposed brother.

"So, do you really think you're Vaughn's brother?" Julia asked.

Vaughn stiffened up beside me, and I reached under the blanket and squeezed his hand tightly.

Jonathon turned to Julia. "Well, it all makes sense." He said. "We look enough alike..."

"But my brother had brown hair," Vaughn said. "You don't."

"My hair colour changed," Jonathon said plainly, reaching up and running his fingers through his shoulder-length silver hair.

Suddenly, I remembered something. The picture... the picture I had taken before the house collapsed! The one of Vaughn and Jonathon!

I jumped up off the couch and ran to the door.

"Chelsea!" Julia called after me. "Where are you going!"

"I'll be back!" I screamed, grabbing my coat and throwing it on.

I ran through the blackening night, my coat flapping behind me like a kite. The cold air stung my throat and made my eyes water, but I paid it no mind. Damnit, how had I not remembered the picture!

Running onto my farm, I felt a numbness creeping through my feet. When I looked down I realized I didn't have any shoes on, and had just run through piles of snow in the middle of winter in my sock feet. Screaming from the chill in my feet, I raced to my house and burst through the door. I began jumping up and down, searching everywhere for my camera.

Once I found it, I tore off my sopping wet socks, put clean, dry ones on, and shoved my feet into my rubber boots. Grabbing my camera off the desk where I had put it, I ran back through the winter night to Mirabelle's house, where I ran through the door, kicked off my rubber boots, threw my coat on the floor and ran back into the living room.

"Chelsea!" Mirabelle cried jumping off the chair she was sitting. "Oh my Goddess, dear girl, what have you been doing?"

"I... went to get... my camera..." I gasped, my throat still stinging from the cold.

"Well, you didn't have to run like a madwoman through town in the middle of winter with no shoes!" Mirabelle scolded. "My Lord, Chelsea, don't you have some common sense? It's not that big of a deal that you have to do what you did!"

"I know..." I muttered, my breath returning. I sat down back beside Vaughn, who wrapped a blanket around my shoulders.

Snuggling closer to the blanket, I began flipping through the pictures on my camera until I found the one taken over two years ago.

"Jonathon," I said. "Look at me."

Jonathon turned his head, doing what I said. I held the camera up beside him, and looked from the little baby in the picture to the full-grown man in front of me.

"Do they look alike?" I asked Vaughn. "The baby in the picture and Jonathon?"

Vaughn reached out and grabbed the camera. He looked closely at the baby, then at Jonathon. Finally, he nodded and gave me the camera back.

"But that still doesn't mean that Jonathon and Vaughn are brothers," Julia said. "We don't have actual proof."

"Julia," Mirabelle said. "I'm pretty sure they're brothers. There's about a 1% chance they aren't."

"But how do we make sure?" I asked, leaning away from the couch, my camera still in hand.

"We could go on or something!" Julia suggested.

"I don't know if that'll work, dear," Mirabelle said. "I do have our family tree in a portfolio. We could check that."

Without waiting for an answer, Mirabelle got up and walked to the small cherry wood bookshelf in the corner of the living room. Searching through it, she pulled out a small blue portfolio with worn edges and few rips.

Sitting back down, she opened it to the first page. Seven boxes were on it, with writing and numbers in each, all connected by different lines. A smaller box sat all alone in the corner, with all the different lines and writing beside them.

I got up and walked over to where Mirabelle sitting. Vaughn, Julia, and Jonathon followed. Peering over Mirabelle's shoulder, I saw the boxes had names in them.

There were four at the top. The one to the left had the name Alexander Henry Logan, married to Mirabelle Anna Wilkens Logan, father to Julia Isabella Logan, born Summer 5th, died Winter 19th, age 46. It was connected to a box beside it by a squiggly line, and a box below it by a jagged line.

The box beside it said, Mirabelle Anna Wilkens Logan, married to Alexander Henry Logan, mother to Julia Isabella Logan, born Spring 11th. It too was connected to the same box as Alexander's by a jagged line, and another box beside it by an arrow.

That box had the words Julia Isabella Logan, daughter to Alexander Henry Logan and Mirabelle Anna Wilkens Logan, born Spring 6th.

Julia's box was connected to two boxes beside it by a straight line. The first box beside her's said, Vaughn Daniel Anderson, son of Oliver Peter Anderson and Bella Fiona Wilkens Anderson, born Spring 3rd. Vaughn's box was connected to the box that was also connected to Julia's by an arrow, and to the two above it by a jagged line.

The box beside Vaughn's read, Jonathon Skye Anderson, son of Oliver Peter Anderson and Bella Fiona Wilkens Anderson, born Summer 10th, died Winter 5th, age 6.

I froze. Jonathon Skye Anderson... Everyone thought he was dead. But in truth, he had been living, going by his middle name.

Now I was 100% sure this man who dressed like a male model was Vaughn's brother.

**Me: One of the longest chapters I've EVER written! If you're confused about the whole family tree, just check out xXHarvestMooLuvXx's avatar, like I said before. Ok, hello and welcome to WDA Talk Show! Our guest today is Felicia!**

**Felicia: Hello.**

**Me: So, what do you think about Skye being Vaughn's brother?**

**Felicia: It's ok, I guess.**

**Me: Well, I actually have a story about how I came up with the idea. While I was writing the chapter "Long Live" of my story The Story of Us, I was thinking about Ruins and Vaughn's brother, Jonathon. I accidently wrote that Chelsea figured out that the two were brothers, because I was using things from Ruins. So, that's how I came up with the idea. And Skye will play a VERY important role in this story's plot. **

**Felicia: Um, ok, then. I better go... *leaves***

**Me: Yeah, I have to go to... Bye! **


	8. Yellow Polka Dots

**This chapter is kind of boring... I'm sorry! The next chapter will definately make up for it, I swear :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Yellow Polka Dots

I woke up the next morning on Mirabelle's couch, leaning against Vaughn's chest. A wool blanket covered my legs, and Vaughn's arm was wrapped protectively around my shoulder. As I looked around I saw Mirabelle sleeping on the chair, leaning against her hand. Julia was propped against the bottom of the couch, a blanket carelessly tossed across her lap. Jonathon was lying sprawled out on the floor, cuddling a deep blue blanket.

What was I doing here? The last thing I remember was talking to Vaughn and Jonathon, while Julia watched TV eating a bag of chips and Mirabelle worked on next week's shipment. Had I really fallen asleep?

I moved slightly to rub my eyes, which caused me to shift positions. Vaughn stirred in his sleep and woke up, his purple eyes looking down at me.

"Hello," I whispered softly, looking back up at him.

Vaughn smiled slightly, and kissed the top of my head. Looking around, an expression of shock crossed his face, like he thought we were somewhere else.

"Why are in my aunt's living room?" he asked me quietly.

"We fell asleep here," I answered. "Remember?"

Vaughn continued looking around, until his eyes landed on Jonathon. "So…" he said almost reluctantly. "Skye… uh, Jonathon, is actually my brother?"

"As far as we're concerned," I muttered, snuggling closer to him.

I could hear Vaughn's heart quicken. When I looked up at his face I saw a look of terror.

"Vaughn…?" I whispered, reaching up and placing my hand on his cheek. "Are you ok?"

Vaughn grabbed my hand and held it tight. "I'm… fine," he murmured. He gently me pushed me off and got up. I watched him leave the small living room and go down the hall.

By eight in the morning, everyone had woken up. Mirabelle urged me to stay for breakfast, but I declined and headed home. This time my coat was on properly, I had on my winter boots, and my camera and rubber boots were in hand.

When I got home, I put everything away and went to check on Ella. I hadn't seen Vaughn since he left the living room. I wondered where he had gone as I brushed Ella and put some fodder in her feed trough.

After that was done, I walked to the small café in East Town for some breakfast. As I was eating my fried eggs the bell above the door rang bright and cheery. In walked Sabrina, Regis, and a rather tall young man with bleach blonde hair and sky blue eyes.

"This is the local café," Regis said to the man, opening his arms wide.

"It's very… homely," the blonde man said in a British accent.

Regis smiled at the British guy, and led him to the table beside mine. Sabrina followed quietly behind the two men, and waved shyly at me as she sat down.

I smiled lightly at her, and went back to eating my eggs.

Regis talked to the young man all through the meal. I learned that his name was Will, and that he was staying with Regis while his yacht got repairs.

"It's so great to have you here, William!" Regis said. "But it is a shame your yacht nearly sank."

"Very much," Will replied. "The repairs will cost at least a million G… Mother and Father were not very happy with me."

"Ah, yes…" Regis said, shaking his head solemnly. "My brother always did have a large temper."

If Will's father was Regis's uncle, that meant that Regis was Will's uncle, and Will was Sabrina's cousin. So they were family! But they looked nothing a like… Then again, I looked nothing like my father.

"But, at least you're here with us for Starry Night!" Regis said, smiling largely.

Oh, chute! I totally forgot that tomorrow was Starry Night! I'm not even close to being ready…!

I quickly jumped up from the table, paid Madeleine, and raced home. As soon as I walked inside, I began looking through my recipes for something to cook. I decided on porridge, dinner rolls, and apple pie. Simple, I know, but I don't know many recipes, and Vaughn loves porridge.

I ran back out the door to go buy the ingredients from Chen. Putting them in the fridge, I began dialling Julia's number to ask if she wanted to go shopping with me in the city.

"I'd love to!" she cried when I asked her. "I'll be over in a few minutes…"

After we hung up, I began getting ready. I combed my horribly tangled brown hair, brushed my teeth, and got changed into something clean.

Just as I was putting on my shoes, there was a knock on my door and I opened it to see Julia standing there in a small white coat, tall brown furry boots, and a light blue purse.

"Ready?" she asked, smiling widely. I nodded, and we headed out the door to the beach to get on the ferry.

An hour and a half later, the city skyline appeared on the frosty horizon.

"I need to get a dress for Starry Night," I said as Julia and I walked down the busy city streets after getting off the boat.

"I do to," Julia confessed. "That's the only reason I came with you. That, and I hate going to the city alone, so I thought you might feel the same way."

We walked into a small shop called Kailee's Dresses and began browsing through all the gorgeous dresses there.

"Look at this one!" Julia squealed, pointing to a short pink dress with black polka dots, a box across the chest, and a ruffled bottom. "It's so cute!"

"Yeah, but it's not… you." I said looking from Julia to the dress. "You look better in colours like white or blue."

"But if I wear white it'll look like I'm getting married, and there's nothing pretty here in blue!" Julia pouted.

"Yes there is!" I countered. "Like this dress!" I pointed to a dark blue dress with pleated layers and a small cluster of flowers in the corner. When Julia's face didn't move, I continued looking through the rack of dresses.

"Or this one!" I said, showing her a light blue dress with a loose skirt, black silk belt and bust.

Julia's face brightened a bit. "I like it," she said, grabbing the dress from. "I'm going to go try it on," she cooed in a sing-songsy voice and skipped off to the dressing room.

After Julia was gone, I began looking for a dress for myself. I eventually found a yellow dress with a loose, flowing skirt, black belt, and small yellow polka-dots covering the dress made of velvet-like material.

Julia came flouncing out of the changing room, dress in hand and a pair of black lace-up heels. "I look great in this!" she said happily. "I'm getting it!"

"I think I'm going to get this dress," I said, showing her the yellow dress I had found.

"Pretty!" Julia cried. "Go try it on! There's some shoes on the way there!"

I grabbed a pair of six-inch black heels, and went to change into the dress. It fit me perfectly, and looked great with the shoes. Everyone always said I looked great in any shade of orange, red, or yellow. And they were right.

After we had bought our dresses and shoes, Julia and I walked to the nearest cafe, chatting the whole time. Once we were done there, we returned to the dock and boarded the ferry to go home.

**Me: I'm sorry for boring your eyeballs out of your heads... This chapter just kind of needed to be here, like that surfer dude from SongeBob. I have tons planned for this story, but hopefully I'll be able to fit it in here while staying in my 30-max chapter thing. I don't like my stories to be too long... or too short. All my stories have to be between 15-30 chapters, unless they're oneshots or twoshots or threeshots. I got Julia's blue dresses from this little dress design thing I have, and I got Chelsea's from the dress Taylor Swift was wearing in the picture for Speak Now in the Speak Now album book thing. MUHAHAHA!**


	9. Starry Night

**This chapter isn't as boring as the last, except when Chelsea's cooking... That's kind of boring. But I like this chapter :3**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Starry Night

When we got home, we both went home to put our clothes away. After my dress and shoes were neatly in my closet, I walked happily over to Mirabelle's shop.

"Hel-lo!" I called cheerily as I walked through the door.

"Hello, dear," Mirabelle said from the counter. She was counting the items on the shelf behind her. "Julia's in the living room showing off her dress to Jonathon and Vaughn..."

"Kay," I said, and skipped gingerly to the living room. As I walked through the door, I saw Julia strutting around in her light blue dress and lace-up heels in front of Vaughn and Jonathon who were sitting on the couch.

Vaughn's head was tilted back, and his eyes were closed. Jonathon was covering his face with his hand, and kept sighing over and over again.

"Hey!" Julia said, clapping her hands in front of the boy's faces. "I'm not finished!"

Vaughn and Jonathon groaned, and sat up straight. Julia smiled brightly, and continued walking around the small room.

Laughing, I entered the room and sat down beside Vaughn.

"Chelsea!" Julia cried. "Don't I look wonderful in this dress? Do you think Elliot will like it?"

"Elliot?" Vaughn scoffed, leaning farther away from the couch. "You're celebrating Starry Night with that nerd?"

"He's not a nerd!" Julia said protectively.

"Since when did you like him?" I asked.

"When I got back from my coma," she said. "He helped me walk around for the first few days..."

"Fabulous," I said sarcastically. "How come I never heard of this?"

"Because I knew you would act like this," Julia said matter-of-factly.

"I would not!" I protested.

"Yes, you would," Julia said, wagging her finger at me. "You're my best friend. I know you!"

I narrowed my eyes at her, and turned to Vaughn.

"Where did you disappear to?" I asked him, trying to change the subject. I was suddenly uninterested in Julia's sob stories.

"I just needed to be alone..." Vaughn said uncomfortably.

"Oh," I said, and wrapped my arm around his. "Ok."

"I'm going to go change..." Julia said, and stalked out in her six-inch heels.

Once she was gone, both men let out a deep sigh.

"I had to go through one hour of her walking around like some supermodel," Jonathon breathed. "I need to take a nap."

Jonathon left, leaving Vaughn and I alone. I leaned my head against his shoulder, and closed my eyes.

"Are you coming over to my house tonight?" I asked quietly.

Vaughn wriggled his arm from my grasp and wrapped it around my shoulder. "Of course..." he muttered. He lifted up my chin with his free hand, and gently kissed me. It lasted only about a second, but I still loved it...

"Where'd Jonny go?" Julia said walking back into the room. She had changed into her "normal" clothes, which included an open belly shirt, Daisy Duke shorts, and tall white boots.

"Jonny?" Vaughn scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"Can I not call my cousin what I want?" Julia protested.

"I didn't say that," Vaughn retorted. "Just don't start calling me 'Vaughnie' like you did back when we were little."

"I was six, and meeting you for the first time!" Julia snapped. "It's not my fault we never met before that..."

Vaughn sighed and leaned back into the couch, taking his arm from around my shoulder.

"Well, I need to go help Mom choose the menu for tonight," Julia said. "I don't have time to argue about something that happened sixteen years ago!"

"Then why'd you start?" Vaughn asked her, raising an eyebrow.

Julia glared at him, then turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.

"I need to go too," I said, getting up off the couch when Julia was gone.

Vaughn got up too, and without saying anything, grabbed me around my waist and pulled me in for another kiss. This one was longer, and it made my legs turn into Jell-O. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and tried to stabilize my legs.

After standing there kissing for a while, Vaughn pulled away, smiled slightly at me, and then left. I walked out of the living room, calling to Mirabelle and Julia as I left.

As I pushed open the wooden door, I was greeted by a marvellous sight. Big, white, fluffy snowflakes were falling from the sky, landing on the ground all around me. They reminded me of the ones I had seen in the city, when I woke up from my coma.

Walking home, I saw Eliza and Charlie playing in the snow. They looked so cute!

When I was back on my farm, I began cooking dinner. I grabbed a big bag of uncooked rice from the fridge and a big jug of milk. I poured the rice into a big bowl full of water, and stuck it on the stove. Once the rice was cooked, I poured in about a cup and a half of milk.

I went back to the fridge, and grabbed some eggs, butter, and milk. I took another bowl out of the cupboard and poured in three cups of milk, and a cup of butter. Taking a wooden spoon from the small jar by the sink, I began stirring. I then cracked two eggs on the side of the counter and emptied them in the bowl, and then began stirring again.

When that was done, I took a big handful of the dough and slabbed it on a cookie tray, forming it into the shape of a dinner roll. I did this another time, and stuck them in the oven.

I stirred the porridge a bit, and then took the pot off the stove to cool. Then, I took another trip to the fridge to get wheat flour, eggs, butter, and apples.

I mixed the wheat flour, eggs, and butter in a big bowl, then put the dough in a pie tin, filling it with apples and cinnamon. I put that in the stove, too, and went to take a quick shower while they cooked.

When I got back, I took the dinner rolls out of the stove and put them by the big pot of now-cooled porridge. The apple pie was almost done, so I ran off to get changed.

The pie was finished when I came back, so I put it beside the dinner rolls, and put the porridge back on the stove to heat up a bit.

Just as I did that, there was a knock on the door. I tore off the apron I had been wearing and ran to the door as fast as my high heels could take me.

I opened the door to find Vaughn hiding beneath the part of my roof that hung off, trying to stay out of the snow. He was wearing a black shirt, black pants, and real shoes, not cowboy boots. And as I had expected, there was a cowboy hat on his head.

Smiling at him, I opened the door wider for him to come in. He smiled lightly back at me, and stepped inside, but not before dusting himself, and his hat, off.

"Where's your coat?" I asked, realizing he had no actual winter wear on.

"I don't need one," he said plainly.

"Yes you do!" I protested. "It's freezing out there! You're going to get sick!"

Vaughn smirked and shook his head. I rolled my eyes at him and closed the door.

"You look great," Vaughn said. He walked around behind me, and I felt something cold against my neck. When I looked down, I saw he had fastened a beautiful diamond necklace around my neck.

"Oh, Vaughn," I breathed, picking up the gorgeous necklace and looking at it. "It's so beautiful!"

I turned around to face him, and saw a smile on his face. A real smile. Not some smirk or half-smile. But an actual smile.

"You look so great when you smile," I whispered to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. I leaned my forehead against his, and stared into the beautiful purple eyes of his.

We stood like that for a minute or so, in complete silence.

"I made porridge," I suddenly said with a smile. Vaughn smiled back, and we went to eat.

Once we were done eating, we walked outside to go watch the stars. Vaughn protested against my telling him to go home and get a coat, so he wore what he came in. I, however, didn't want to freeze my butt off and wore a shawl. It had stopped snowing, but was still really cold.

Since we knew most people would be going to the mountain, we went to the meadow. It wasn't as great a view, but we could see the sky clearly and weren't crowded by every other villager on the island.

The clouds had disappeared, revealing a beautiful sky full of millions of bright, twinkling stars. Vaughn grabbed me by the waist and pulled me closer to him. We stared up at the stars, marvelling at them.

After about five minutes of gaping at the stars, Vaughn leaned down and kissed me.

Even though it was the middle of winter and I was only wearing a short dress and shawl, I suddenly felt warm... But like what happened before, my legs got weak and Vaughn had to hold me up. Before I knew what was happening, Vaughn had picked me up and was holding me bridal style. I never wanted this moment to end.

But it had to. Vaughn and I pulled apart eventually, and we both just stared at each other for a while. Then Vaughn, realizing he was still holding me, but me down. His cheeks turned bright red, and I could feel my own face heating up as well.

"We should go..." I said quietly. "It's getting late..."

Vaughn nodded, and slipped his hand into mine. We walked hand-in-hand back to my farm, where we said good-bye and he went home to Mirabelle's shop.

**Me: Hello and welcome to WDA Talk Show! Our guest today is Natalie!**

**Natalie: Awww... That was so sweet!**

**Me: Yeah... *smiles* It kind of reminds me of Enchanted by Taylor Swift... _This night is sparkling, don't you let it go... I'm wonderstruck, dancing all the way home._**

**Natalie: I love that song!**

**Me: I do too! My favourite from her CD is Better Than Revenge.**

**Natalie: Me too! I also like Mean...**

**Me: Mhmm. Well, bye!**

**Natalie: Buh-bye! *walks away***

**Me: Wasn't that an interesting discussion?**


	10. Sickening

**I'm being mean and giving you a total shocker and then a cliffy *smiles evilly* :) YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Sickening

The next morning I woke up sprawled across my bed, still in my dress. My shoes and shawl were strewn out around the door, and the supper dishes were still on the table. As I got up, I realized I was still wearing the diamond necklace Vaughn had given me. I took it off gently, making sure it wasn't broke in any way. When I saw it was unharmed, I sighed a breath of relief and put it on my bedside table.

My dress was a mess. The skirt was all aloof and the belt was falling down. I tore the thing off and laid it down on my bed, making a mental note to fix it later. I changed into some comfy sweats and set to work cleaning my house up.

I put my shoes and shawl where they belonged, then cleared the table and stuck the dishes in the sink. How I dreamed of having a dishwasher someday, so Cascade Complete can clean the dishes, not me. I turned the water on hot, and filled the sink with Dawn soap.

Grabbing the yellow sponge from beside the sink, I began scrubbing mercilessly at the dishes.

"Die, stuck-on food, die!" I screamed into the soapy water. I must have looked like a lunatic, screaming at plates.

When the dishes were finally clean, I put on my coat and winter boots to go look after Ella. Poor girl was freezing. No wonder, too. She was a little baby cow, stuck in an empty barn in the winter. After I fed and brushed her, I covered her in an old wool blanket, and made her a little cozy bed out of straw, towels, and a big comforter with a hole in it. She seemed happier.

Back inside my house, I began "fixing" my dress. I had to put it on, though. I took the belt off and began separating the skirts, laying them back on each other carefully. Once the skirt was fixed, I put the belt back on, took the dress off, and hung it in my closet.

I then flounced over to Mirabelle's shop to ask Julia how her night with Elliot went. When I opened the door, the shop was empty.

"Hello?" I called silently through the empty space. I walked slowly inside, my Uggs making a scuffling noise. "Mirabelle? Julia? Vaughn?"

No one answered.

"Jonathon?" I asked as a last resort. "Is anyone here?"

I stood near the doorway to Mirabelle's shop for a while, listening for someone. Nothing. All I heard was the ticking of Mirabelle's old grandfather clock.

"Chelsea!" Suddenly, Jonathon and Vaughn popped out from around the corner. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see Julia," I said.

"She's still asleep," Jonathon said. "She was up really late last night."

"Oh," I said quietly. "Did she tell you how her date with Elliot went?"

Both brothers looked at each, and Vaughn shook his head slightly.

"Uh," Jonathon said. "She said it went great..." Vaughn nodded his head in agreement.

"Ok," I said. "Can you tell her I want to see her when she wakes up?"

"Sure," Vaughn said, and the two men walked back down the hall.

As I was walking back home, I ran into Natalie.

"Hi, Natalie," I said cheerily, stopping. "How was last night with Pierre?"

"Fantastic!" Natalie cheered. "He made the most delicious meal! I had the best time! How about you and Vaughn?"

"Wonderful," I said.

"I didn't see you guys on the mountain top," Natalie observed. "But, then again, there were so many people..."

"We went to the meadow," I said. "Vaughn knew there would be so many people and he doesn't like crowds..."

"Ah," Natalie said.

"Did your brother say anything about how his night with Julia went?" I asked.

"Nope," Natalie told me. "He got home really late, like two in the morning. Mom made me stay up for him... Ugh. He just threw off his shoes and coat and went to bed."

I nodded. "What do you think they did to make them so late?" I asked.

Natalie got this really freaky look on her face. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at me with her eyebrows raised.

I got what she was saying. "Oh, Natalie!" I cried. "No! They wouldn't! Oh, no, no... Where would they do it?"

"The hotel..." Natalie mumbled, playing with her nail.

"No," I said. "They would never do that. Never!"

"I don't know..." Natalie said.

"Please," I scoffed. "You're being ridiculous!" With that said, I stalked away.

At three pm, I went down to see if Julia had woken up. I figured she had, considering it was almost supper time. When I walked through the door, I saw Julia curled up on the couch in the living room with a book. Mirabelle had her back turned from me, counting the inventory. Her two nephews were nowhere to be seen.

"Hi," I said softly to Mirabelle, who turned around and smiled at me.

"Hello, Chelsea, dear," she said. "Julia's in the living room reading..."

I nodded my thanks and hurried to the living room.

"Hey, Jules," I said walking through the small door.

Julia looked up from her book. Her eyes looked tired and her face was pale. "Hi, Chelsea," she said. Her usually strong voice sounded weak and empty.

"You don't sound so good," I said, sitting beside her. "You feel ok?"

"Meh," Julia muttered, shifting positions on the couch. "I've been better."

"So..." I said softly. "How was last night?"

"Great," Julia said, smiling slightly. "I had the best time!"

I smiled at her. "I did too..." I told her. "What did you and Elliot do that made you so late?"

Julia's grey cheeks became flustered with colour. "We... got lost..." she said quietly. "In the forest."

"Oh no!" I gasped. "How? I mean, you've lived here long enough!"

"Well, it was... dark," Julia said.

"Oh..." I muttered. I thought about whether I should tell her what Natalie thought they did, but decided against it.

"Well, I have to go," I said, getting up. "Spring's coming, and I still have a lot to do."

"Ok," Julia said, opening her book again. "Bye."

"Bye,"

Two days later, Vaughn knocked on my door and seven in the morning.

"Hi, Vaughn," I said cheerily, gingerly kissing him on the cheek. "What do you need?"

"Uh..." Vaughn said, as if he suddenly forgot his reason for being here. "Julia wants to see you..."

"Well, why didn't she come here?" I asked, pointing to the floor.

"She... can't." Vaughn said.

"Why not?" I asked him, confused.

"She just... can't." He repeated. "Now come on."

"O-Ok," I mumbled, grabbing my coat and boots.

We walked in silence to Mirabelle's house. Vaughn seemed worried and nervous about something. I tried asking him what was wrong, but all he would say was "You'll see."

When we walked into the shop, we were greeted by Jonathon.

"They're here!" he screamed as loud as possible.

"Oh, good," I heard Mirabelle say from down the hall. Her voice was followed by slow, easing footsteps. About a minute later, Mirabelle and Julia appeared in the room. Julia looked even worse than when I saw her yesterday. Her hair was a mess, her normally bright blue eyes were darkened and full of terror, and her face was pale and greying.

"Julia!" I gasped out, and ran to my friend's aid.

"I was getting ready to take her to the city to the hospital but she wouldn't leave without you," Mirabelle sighed. "Heavens knows why, but just wouldn't move without you."

I nodded, and grabbed Julia's other arm. Vaughn took Mirabelle's side, and we slowly helped Julia down to the ferry. We passed Elliot, who turned ghostly pale when he saw Julia. It looked like he was about to pass out.

About two hours later, Vaughn, Jonathon, and I found ourselves in a hospital waiting room. It was the very hospital I had stayed in during my coma. Lots of the doctors and nurses who passed waved at me and said, "Good to see you," and "How are you, Ms. Smith?" It was weird because I didn't know who half those people were.

After half an hour of sitting, waiting, and being greeted by complete strangers, Julia and Mirabelle emerged from the hall into the waiting room.

Julia looked much better, so they must have given her some medication, but she was white and walking like she had just been given a death sentence.

"What's wrong Julia?" I asked, getting up and walking over to her.

She looked around a bit, then up at me. Her eyes were full of tears and she looked horribly distressed.

"I-I'm pregnant." She whispered.

**Me: :O Aren't I a big meany? MUHAHAHAHAHA! Go me, go me, go me... Ok, I originally planned for Chelsea to be the one to get pregnant but... I decided against it. So now you now what Julia and Elliot were doing. NAUGHTY! Tsk, tsk... Have you noticed how Skye (Jonathon) has managed to wriggle his way into Vaughn's family? It's heartwarming, isn't it? What do you think will happened next? o_O Hmmmmm...? Review and tell me! :D *nods***


	11. That Famous Old Couch

**Poor Julia... she may be overacting in this chapter, but I guess I'd be freaking if I found out I was pregnant D:**

**The title doens't really have anything to do with the chapter. I just like it :P**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah... I don't own HM or anything associated with it...**

The One Famous Couch

Julia sat at the end of the couch back at her house, whimpering like a lost puppy. Elliot was beside her, holding her hand tight. I sat on the same couch with Vaughn, who looked rather annoyed to be part of this discussion. Jonathon was sitting on the floor between Vaughn and I, and Natalie was leaning against the wall. Mirabelle was in her chair, with Felicia standing beside her. Taro was pacing back and forth, shooting angry and disappointed looks at his grandson.

Taro, Mirabelle, and Felicia were talking about what they should do, and the rest of us sat in silence. Vaughn, Jonathon, Natalie, and I had no real reason to be here. Natalie and Jonathon were getting bored, and Vaughn and I just sat and listened.

"Do we have to be here?" Natalie interrupted her grandfather. "This is so boring!"

Taro glared at his daughter, then, sighing, waved to the door. Both Natalie and Jonathon jumped up and shot out of there, but Vaughn and I stayed. I wanted to know what was going to happen, and Vaughn didn't really care.

"So what are we going to do?" Elliot asked, his eyes wide.

"We don't know," Felicia said in her calm, soothing voice.

Julia burst into tears suddenly. She covered her face with her hands and cried madly.

"Oh, Julia, honey," Mirabelle said, standing up and hugging her daughter. "It'll be ok..."

"You it won't!" Julia screamed. "There's nothing we can do!"

"Well..." Taro said quietly. "There is one thing..."

He sounded like one of those old guys in the movies. Except he didn't golf, or wear goofy plaid pants.

"What?" Julia asked, looking up. Her face seemed a bit brighter, as if she had found the silver lining to her dark cloud.

"Abortion," Taro said.

Julia gasped and covered her stomach. Seems like that silver lining ended up to be more dark cloud...

"No!" she said sternly. "I'd never do that! No matter what!"

"That's good to hear, sweetie," Mirabelle said, giving Taro the death glare.

"What?" he said defensively. "It was just a suggestion..."

"Looks like you're going to have to go through with the pregnancy, huh?" Mirabelle said, kissing her daughter on the head.

Julia nodded weakly, and rubbed her nose.

"I'm going to call Dr. Trent, just to check up on you," Mirabelle said, and headed for the phone.

"But we just got back from the doctors," Julia whined.

"Yes, but he didn't explain much," Mirabelle said.

"Well it's best we get going," Felicia said. "I still need to make lunch and it's almost one pm!"

Taro walked out the door, and Elliot was about to follow him but his mother stopped him.

"Elliot, you stay here," she said. "Come home when Dr. Trent's gone."

Elliot nodded, and went back to sit beside Julia.

Mirabelle hung up the phone and went back to sit down. "I caught him at a good time," she said. "He was just on his way here to collect some medical herbs and check up on a shipment he made with Chen."

Julia began shaking, and Elliot wrapped a comforting arm around her.

"My life is ruined..." she whispered hoarsely.

"Oh, now Julia, it's not ruined," Mirabelle said. "Being a mother is wonderful!"

Julia shot her mother an angry look. "Yeah, but I'm going to get fat!" she cried. "And then I'll have to give birth! I'm only twenty-two!"

"Well, that's your fault," Mirabelle said, wagging a finger at her.

Julia started crying again, but Mirabelle made no move to go comfort her.

"Julia, you need to learn that your actions have consequences," Mirabelle sighed.

Julia paid her mother no mind; just kept crying.

After six minutes or so of hearing Julia sob her eyes out, there was a knock on the door. Mirabelle jumped up and went to get it.

She returned into the small living room with a tall man with shaggy black hair and deep brown eyes. He was wearing a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a khaki vest, green pants and burgundy shoes.

"Hello," he said. "I'm Dr. Trent."

Mirabelle sat back down in her chair and Dr. Trent moved so he was in between Mirabelle and her daughter.

"So when did you find out you were pregnant?" he asked Julia.

"T-Today," Julia said with a shaky voice.

Dr. Trent nodded. "Ok," he said. "During the pregnancy you'll get tired quickly, so try not to strain yourself. Also, your hormones will be acting up so anything will make you angry, sad, happy... And then there's morning sickness."

Julia groaned and began rubbing her temples.

"Make sure you eat healthy and get plenty of rest," Dr. Trent said, finishing off his lecture. He then took Julia into the kitchen for a check-up, so Vaughn and I went off to find Jonathon.

We find him in the room he and Vaughn were now sharing (much to Vaughn's dislike and annoyance). He was lying on the mattress Mirabelle had set up for him, staring at his phone.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

He shot up and closed whatever he was looking at. "N-Nothing," he said nervously. "Just stuff for... work."

"Whatever..." Vaughn grumbled and jumped onto his bed.

"So," I said, sitting down beside Vaughn. "What types of curry have you found?"

Jonathon's eyes grew white and he turned pale. "Uh..." he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "The-There's some really spicy types of curry... and there's really bitter curry, and sweet curry..."

Vaughn raised an eyebrow at his brother. "I hadn't realized..." he said sarcastically.

Jonathon glared at Vaughn, then turned back to his phone.

"Are you sure you're a curry chef?" Vaughn asked him.

"What do you mean?" Jonathon asked, turning towards the cowboy.

"I mean, you don't act like a curry chef," Vaughn said. "And you're always so nervous when you talk about your job. Not to mention you went by 'Skye' most of your life. What was wrong with your first name?"

Jonathon sat up fully and turned towards us both. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, like all of this was giving him a headache.

"Ok, fine..." he said after a few minutes of awkward silence. "I'm not a curry chef..."

"Then what are you?" I asked, my curiosity at its peak.

Jonathon sighed and fell back onto his mattress/bed, making a "poof" sound as he hit the pillow.

"I'm a thief."

**Me: That was a total shocker. I think we all knew Skye/Jonathon was a thief... Why do you think he went by "Skye"? Tell me in your reviews! Ok, hello and welcome to WDA Talk Show! Our Guest today is no one because your authour, HarvestMoonLuv, is too lazy to think of someone! :D**


	12. The New Windy City

**_We're_ expecting a huge storm down where I live, so the power will probably go out. So, without power I have no internet and no FanFiction. Which means no updates. So don't be surprised if I disappear for a while. I'll be behind on updates because I'll kill my laptop's battery D: I'm going to be stuck at home _thinking_ about my story instead of writing it :'( Oh yeah, did I mention I have no school tomorrow? And it hasn't even started snowing! They cancelled it because of a weather forecast. Tsk, tsk, tsk...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

The New Windy City

Vaughn and I both stared at the purple-pantsed man in front of us. Jonathon was biting his lip, playing with his fingers.

"Y-You're a _thief_?" Vaughn exclaimed.

Jonathon slowly nodded.

"How?" his brother screamed. "How could you be a _thief_?" he said the word with such disgust it made me shudder.

"I just am," Jonathon protested.

"Couldn't you do something better?" Vaughn cried. "Something honourable, that didn't mean you stealing from other people!"

"Will you shut up!" Jonathon demanded. "I don't want Mirabelle and Julia to know... they have enough on their hands already!"

Vaughn glared at him. "Fine..." he mumbled. "But why did you go as 'Skye'?"

"Do we really need to discuss this?" I asked, rolling my eyes. He just figured his brother was a thief and he wanted to know why he went by his middle name!

"Yes," Vaughn snapped, and turned back to his brother.

"Because Skye is more... exotic," Jonathon said. "Do you want me to go around telling people they've been robbed by 'Jonathon'? It would make it sound like a tax collector visited them! That's why I went by 'Phantom Skye'..."

"Phantom Skye?" Vaughn scoffed. "Sounds like some cheesy movie they made toys for at McDonald's."

Jonathon shot his brother a vicious look, but quickly refrained himself from pouncing on him. "It is not cheesy!" he snapped. "It's a lot better than some of the names of the guys I work with..."

"So, this is actually like some agency?" I asked.

Jonathon nodded. "There's dozens of people, just like me, spread throughout the entire world. We're each given a small village or part of a city to work at... I was recently stationed in a small town called Forget-Me-Not Valley." He said.

"Is it just me, or is this crazy?" I asked, shaking my head.

"This is crazy..." Vaughn said in agreement. "Has anyone ever gotten _caught_?"

"All the time!" Jonathon said. "I was actually bailed out of jail last season..."

"Oh my God," Vaughn said, throwing his hands in the air. "I'm related to a criminal! A criminal! _Why_ would do this?"

"It pays good." Jonathon shrugged. "Especially if you steal a lot of stuff."

"So..." I said, contemplating everything I had just head in my head. "You're 'stationed' here now?"

"I guess you could say that," Jonathon said, nodding.

"Have you robbed anyone yet?" Vaughn asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Pfft," Jonathon said, waving his hand at Vaughn. "There's no one here worth robbing. But there is one person... They're the whole reason I'm here."

"Who?" I asked, leaning forward as if expecting him to whisper it.

"Regis," Jonathon said with a sneer.

* * *

"You can't rob _Regis_!" I called after Jonathon as we walked through the forest. Vaughn and I had chased him after he had run off.

"Sure I can," Jonathon said, looking at us over his shoulder.

"You don't understand," I said. "Regis is a corporate _giant_! He has dozens of connections in every city, every town, every village! If you rob him and he finds out, you're _dead_!"

"I won't get caught..." Jonathon snickered.

"Think about it," Vaughn said quietly. "Regis gets robbed in the middle of the night... And at the same time the mysterious newcomer disappears."

"It takes a lot to catch the Phantom Skye," Jonathon said with a laugh.

"Then how'd you get caught last time?" I asked. "Because, whatever it was, I'm almost positive Regis has at least ten times more, or can do it ten times faster."

"I got caught last time because the guy was actually a police officer," Jonathon said, spinning around to face us. "He sprayed me with pepper spray and cuffed me, right on the spot. I doubt Regis has personal police officers on hand."

"Even if you escape, he'll hunt you down and have you put in jail for life," Vaughn said. "You'd practically be putting yourself in front of a speeding car."

"Don't worry, brother," Jonathon said, walking backwards. "I have a plan."

"And what is this 'plan' of yours?" I asked.

"At two am this morning, a ferry arrives at the island, right?" he asked. Vaughn and I both nodded. "Well, I'll do the robbery at one thirty am, jump on the boat, and get outta here. Then I'll 'disappear of the face of the earth' for a while, until this whole thing is behind us."

"But like I said, Regis has connections everywhere," I said. "There's no where you can hide where he won't find you."

"Oh yeah?" Jonathon asked, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper with worn edges and began unfolding it. "Does he have connections here?"

He held up a poster with the picture of a beautiful mountain scene. Tucked inside the mountains you could see a small town, surrounded by grassy fields and flowers. It looked like something out of _Heidi_ or whatever. The words _Zephyr Town, the new Windy City _were sprawled across the top.

"Zephyr Town?" Vaughn said, squinted at the poster. "Where's that?"

Jonathon shrugged. "Somewhere in the Swiss Alps I think..." He muttered, refolding the paper. "But that's where I'm going after this robbery. Zephyr Town used to be huge, with this prosperous bazaar and famous race track. But then something happened and they collapsed, and got completely wiped off the map. I doubt someone as important as Regis will know where it is."

Vaughn and I both looked at the man in front of us. He had his arms triumphantly folded across his chest, and a victorious smile plastered across his face.

"You have to admit..." I mumbled. "It is a pretty good plan..."

"Yeah, but Regis will still find you." Vaughn said, standing up straighter. "He'll be onto you the minute the robbery takes place, and won't let you go until you're behind bars with a triple life sentence on your head."

"How do you know?" Jonathon asked. He turned around again, and began walking. "Has anyone ever tried to rob him?"

"No," I said. "Because they're smart enough to stay away. Do you really want to risk everything for some stupid diamond or a chunk of ruby?"

"That's just who I am," Jonathon said, spreading his arms wide. "Besides, it's my life. Why should you two care?"

"You're my brother," Vaughn said. "I don't want to see your end up in jail for life."

"Well I'm doing it," Jonathon said. "And there's nothing you can say to stop me."

**Me: Dun, dun, dun...! What do you think will happen next? You can see the plot unfolding... Skye/Jonathon is now a major part of the plot, and won't disappear until the end. You'll see lots of HM characters from other games in this story as a matter of fact... Now, I must bid you a gentle good morrow to go try and write the next chapter before and/or if my power goes out :P**


	13. Jewels

**Ok, so my power's still on (good thing), and it's snowing really hard outside but the storm still hasn't reached its peak, so I might disappear in an hour or so... **

**This is where the climax of the story comes rolling in. Hurray for exciting chapters! :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters.**

Jewels

Vaughn and I sat on my small couch in my house, near the window, thinking, hoping, praying. The wall clock read 11:08 pm. The world outside was dark and empty of life... except for a lone owl, which hooted into the night, looking for someone to talk to.

"He's insane..." Vaughn muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Does he really think he's going to get away with stealing from Regis Regison, one of the richest men in the world?"

"I know," I said, grabbing the nearest pillow and hugging it to my chest. "But no matter what we say, he won't change his mind. I don't know why he's doing this."

"He told me it was for the adventure..." Vaughn scoffed. "I don't believe him for a second. If he's related to me, he's in it for the money. Mirabelle used to tell stories about Mom being obsessed with money when they were children... She said she even caught her stealing from their dad's wallet..."

"Sounds like Jill..." I muttered, leaning my head against his shoulder. "Before my parents... died, she was always begging for money to go do something with her friends..."

Vaughn reached up and began running his hands through my hair. "Mirabelle says Jonathon is just like Mom in every way possible..." he said softly. "He has her eyes, she said one time at dinner. Dad had the purple eyes... Mirabelle showed me a picture of my parents, and told me I look just like my dad..."

I looked up at him, and saw a few stray tears in his eyes. Life had always been so harsh for Vaughn. We had both lost our parents in car accidents, but at least I remembered my childhood and my family. I couldn't imagine what it must be like for him. Especially now that his brother's showed up alive and is now planning to risk his sanity for a few gems.

I leaned up and softly kissed him on the lips, causing him to smile slightly. I wiped the tears away that had managed to slip out of his usually dry eyes, and moved closer to him.

Two hours later I found myself creeping through the trees, with no light whatsoever to guide me. Vaughn had convinced me to go with him after Jonathon. We were slowly inching our way to Regis's house, where we knew Jonathon was waiting for the strike of 1:30 am.

We found our way to East Town and Regis's lavender-coloured house. We were pressed against the tall cliff that surrounded the small town, watching the bushes and areas around Regis's house for movement.

The night was quiet, except for that same owl that kept hooting. Nothing moved, nothing stirred.

At 1:25, a shadow emerged from the bushes in front of Regis's house. It slowly, quietly approached the door and pulled something out of its pocket, and began messing with the lock.

Vaughn looked at me, and nodded towards the house. We slowly moved away from the cliff, and closer to the figure. The lock opened with a soft _click_ and the person opened the door, which didn't make a sound as it opened. Vaughn and I quickly scurried over to the door and slipped in before the figure silently closed the door.

The thief jumped when he saw two other black figures standing by the doorway.

"Jonathon?" I whispered through the darkness. "Is that you?"

"Of course it's me!" the blackness whispered back. "Who else would it be? Santa Claus?"

"What are you doing here?" Vaughn snapped quietly.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Jonathon whispered angrily. "I'm robbing them, remember?" he reached out and lightly tapped Vaughn on the head.

Vaughn grabbed his brother's arm and twisted it behind his back.

"You're coming with us, that's what you're doing!" he said. "There's no way I'm letting you rob Regis, or anyone for that matter!"

Jonathon slipped out of Vaughn's grasp. "You can't tell me what to do!" he said, then disappeared down the hall, not making a single sound.

I was about to go after him, but Vaughn stopped me. He motioned to his feet, and took his shoes off. I did the same. We then tip-toed after Jonathon, our shoes in hand.

We found him in Regis's library, filling a burlap sack with jewels.

"Jonathon!" Vaughn called out in a whisper. "Put those jewels back right now! Are you crazy?"

"Calm down," Jonathon said back, and dropped a pearl necklace into his bag. "I've done this dozens of times!"

As he reached into the small wooden box that was holding all the jewels, his hand missed and knocked it to the ground. A huge clatter rang out across the house as the box hit the ground, shattering its contents.

"Damn it!" Jonathon said. He quickly swung the bag over his shoulder and dashed for the door.

I heard someone move down the hall, and saw a light switch on.

"What was that?" Sabrina's sleepy voice said.

"I don't know," Regis replied. I could hear the feet scuffling down the hall.

I looked at Vaughn, whose face was etched with terror. We quickly ran after Jonathon, but it was too late.

The library light was flipped on, revealing Regis, Sabrina, and that blonde-haired boy, Will.

Sabrina cried out in shock, and Regis dropped the weapon (a spatula) he had been carrying.

"Chelsea?" Sabrina whispered. "What are you doing?"

Just as I was about to answer, Jonathon popped his head back through the window. He obviously hadn't realized Regis had found us.

"Are you guys com─" his voice trailed off when he saw Regis standing in the library doorway in his pyjamas, his arms angrily folded across his chest. "Shit..."

We all stood there in silence, Vaughn, Jonathon, and I waiting for Regis to say something to us. But he didn't do anything. He just whispered something to Will, who ran off.

"Well, uh, if you don't mind..." Jonathon said, and began slowly receding from the window.

"Stay!" Regis bellowed, and Jonathon practically jumped back through the window.

"Please, Regis, you don't under─" I started, but was cut off.

"I understand perfectly well, Chelsea," Regis said, glaring me down. "William! Are you done!"

"Yes, Uncle!" Will called back, and came down the hall. "The police are on their way."

"No!" Jonathon screamed. "Come on!"

Regis ignored him, and turned to his daughter. "Sabrina, watch these... _thieves_ and make sure they don't get away," he said. He had pretty much spat the word thieves like it was a disease that had started living in his library.

"Yes, Father," Sabrina said, nodding. Regis walked away, and was followed by Will.

Once they were gone, I scurried up to Sabrina to talk to her.

"Please, Sabrina, you need to listen to me," I said. "Vaughn and I are innocent. We only came here to try and stop Jonathon. Please! You need to believe me!"

"I don't know if I should," Sabrina said, eyeing Jonathon suspiciously. "But I'm going to."

I smiled widely at Sabrina, and hugged her tight. "Thank you!" I said.

"You need to get out of here," Sabrina said, and peered down the hall. "Now! Climb out the window and run as fast as you can to the ferry. Get on, and leave. I'll try and convince my father you're innocent. But it won't be easy, and will take a long time. And don't stay it one place for long. Keep moving. Don't contact me, or anyone here, _at all_. Come back in exactly one year. Hopefully everything will be sorted out by then..."

"A year?" I gasped. "But I promised Julia I'd be there for her when she had her baby! And I can't just abandon my farm!"

"You have no choice!" Sabrina said, and pushed me towards Vaughn. "Now go!"

Still trying to process the whole thing in my mind, I clambered out the window with Jonathon and Vaughn. We quietly slipped past Regis and Will, who were waiting outside, and onto the beach.

"Should we write Mirabelle a note?" I asked Vaughn before we got on the ferry. "She's going to be so worried about us!"

"We can't," Vaughn said, taking my hand. "It would be too dangerous."

Jonathon was already at the ferry, and talking to the man there.

"What's in the bag?" the man asked. Vaughn and I both turned, and noticed that Jonathon had managed to keep the bag of stolen jewels.

"Just some food and clothes..." Jonathon muttered.

"Ok..." the man saying, eyeing him suspiciously, and let Jonathon pass.

Thirty minutes later we were all crowded into a small cabin below decks, with the door lock tight. Jonathon had even barricaded it with a side table and chair.

We all sat in silence, listening to the waves lap against the sides of the boat. I could see how Vaughn was refraining himself from lunging at Jonathon and killing him on the spot. Jonathon sat in a corner, playing with the jewels he had stolen, trying to ignore the death glares from Vaughn and I.

My thoughts kept wandering back to the island; to Julia and Mirabelle and everyone else. What would they think when Regis told them we had robbed him? Would they believe him? What about Sabrina? Would she be able to convince her father of our innocence?

Right then, right there, I only knew one thing for certain:

My life was ruined.

**Me: Welcome to WDA Talk Show! I've finally decided to do it! Our guest today is Sabrina!**

**Sabrina: H-Hello...**

**Me: So, do you like the role you played in this chapter?**

**Sabrina: Y-Yes, I guess so...**

**Me: Sorry if I made you a bit OOC...**

**Sabrina: It's ok... That's happens a lot...**

**Me: Yeah... you end up being a vicious controlling bitch all the time. **

**Sabrina: Uh, I guess so...**

**Me: Well that's all the time we have for today! Bye! And don't forget to review!**


	14. Fake Story

**Yayyy! I haven't lost power yet, so I probably won't! :D Some of the names in this chapter are made up by me because they don't have actual names (not that I know of anyway). **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Fake Story

I sat on the edge of a five-star hotel bed, running my fingers through my hair. My bandana sat beside me, wrinkled and smelling of sea salt. It had been a long, vigorous week since we escaped the island. This was our fourth hotel, in our fifth city. Jonathon was still trying to find out where this Zephyr Town was, but it was pretty hard considering the place wasn't on any map.

We had just recently been chased off a boat into the ocean by some of the men Regis had hired. And these men were huge, bulking people who always wore black suits and sunglasses. They looked like FBI agents or something. We had managed to stay afloat until a small boat came by and rescued us.

I fell back onto the bed with an exasperated sight just as Jonathon and Vaughn burst through the door. They had been out in the city, looking for something, anything, about Zephyr Town.

"Nothing," Jonathon said, collapsing onto the bed. Vaughn and I had given up giving him the cold shoulder days ago. It was kind of hard when you were running from a huge corporate giant together.

"But news of what 'we' did is spreading fast," Vaughn said. "It's getting dangerous in the city. We should go somewhere smaller, where it would take longer for the news to reach."

"But we just got here," I said, rubbing my forehead. "Can we leave tomorrow? I'm so tired..."

"No time!" Jonathon said, tugging at my arm. "A passer-by could've recognized us from online or something and told the police! We need to get out of here _now_!"

An hour later I found myself on yet another boat to yet another new destination. It had only been a week and I was already getting tired of this. I am _not_ a traveller.

"Now, remember our story..." Jonathon whispered as we approached our newest "home", Flowerbud Village. Jonathon had created this whole fake story for us to live on while we were hiding and running from Regis.

Vaughn and I were married (Jonathon had supplied the "wedding rings" from his stolen loot bag), and traveling the world with Vaughn's brother, Jonathon. Except our names weren't Vaughn, Chelsea, and Jonathon. They were Daniel, Sarah, and Oliver. Jonathon had always wanted us to switch clothes, but Vaughn argued so much against it that he decided not to.

Flowerbud Village rolled into view just as Jonathon finished re-telling our fake story. There was small beach with a dock and path to the north that led to what looked like three different farms and a small town. I couldn't see much else because it was so far away and there were some clouds blocking my view.

The boat docked at the beach and we walked off onto the sandy beach. It reminded me so much of the beach back home I almost started crying, but told myself not to.

We were quickly met by some guy carrying a fishing rod.

"Hello there!" he said with a smile. "My name's Diego and I'm the local fisherman here at the Flowerbud Village!"

"Hi," I said, smiling back him. "I'm Ch─ Sarah, and this is my... husband, Daniel and his brother... Oliver." It was still taking me some time to adjust to this new life story.

"Hello," Jonathon said, and shoke Diego's hand.

"Hi..." Vaughn mumbled, and covered his eyes with his hat.

Keith eyes Vaughn suspiciously, but shook it off and began rambling again.

"So, what brings you here?" he asked.

"Well, we want to see the world," I explained. "And thought that maybe we should visit a small, rural place like this."

"Fantastic!" Diego said. "How long will you be staying here?"

I looked at Vaughn, who shrugged, and then at Jonathon.

"One or two weeks maybe..." Jonathon said. "It all depends on what... happens."

Diego nodded. "Well, if you come with, I can take you to the mayor who'll be glad to give you all a tour!"

We followed Diego up the beach and onto the path, where we passed a farm he said was owned by the Green family, and another which he said was owned by a young man named Jack, his wife Popuri, and their daughter Tina. The third farm turned out to be a vineyard, which Keith said was owned by Usilas, his wife Renee, and their daughter Karen.

He led us through a little bit of forest and into town, and then into a house with a yellow roof and door.

"Mr. Mayor?" Diego said as he opened the door. "I have some visitors here... They're looking to stay here for a few weeks..."

It was silent for a minute, and then a rather large man burst through a door.

"Wonderful!" he bellowed. He walked over to where we were standing by the door, and smiled widely. "Hello, I'm Mayor Williamsburg! Welcome to Flowerbud Village!"

"Hello," I said, and shook his outstretched hand. "I'm Sarah, and this is my husband, Daniel, and his brother, Oliver."

Mayor Williamsburg smiled and shook Vaughn and Jonathon's hands.

"Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to show you around our quaint little village," Mayor Williamsburg said, nodding his head.

"We'd love to have a tour," Jonathon said with a quick smile.

"Great!" Mayor Williamsburg said. "Annette! We have some visitors! Come meet them!"

"I'm coming!" a voice called from upstairs. Footsteps came down the stairs, and a petite woman appeared beside Mayor Williamsburg. She had raven black hair and small, brown eyes. "Hello," she said, smiling. "I'm Annette, the Mayor's wife."

We went through the greeting process once more, and Mayor Williamsburg led us out the door and into town.

He showed us the library, where his daughter, Mary, works, and a tool shop and souvenir shop owned by two men named Rick and Saibara. As we kept walking we saw a house that belonged to the village midwife, Stella, and her granddaughter May, and a potion shop owned by a man named Miso and his two grandsons Kent and Stu. There was a bakery and cafe further up owned by a woman named Elli, her employee, Jeff, and Elli's grandmother, Ellen. Even further up was a flower shop owned by a couple named Lilia and Basil and their daughter, Popuri. Beside the flower shop was a church and a bar.

"Well, this is the town!" Mayor Williamsburg said from the village square, a flat, raised piece of ground. "But there's so much more beyond town, like the Green Farm, the outer forest, the Sprites Cave... But I'll leave it up to you to find those places."

With that said, the mayor sauntered away, leaving us to look at the small town and decided what to do next.

**Me: The names that I made up were Diego, Mayor Williamsburg, Annette, Stella, Ellen, Usilas, Tina, and Renee. Oh, and Daniel, Sarah, and Oliver. You know what's weird? I didn't realize until after this story was written that Daniel is my dad's name, Sarah is my cousin's name, and Annette is my aunt's name O_O I don't know; but for some reason I find that creepy.**

**lollipopdiego: Yes, I know Skye is a man of curry. That's why his fake job was a curry chef :3 And I haven't played GB in dayssss :O And I named the fisherman after you because you like Denny and he's a fisherman :P I also felt like being nicee. He was originally supposed to be named Keith.**


	15. Stubborn as a Mule

**I almost forgot to upload this chapter D: The horror! In this story, the restaurant on Moon Moutain Summit doubles as a hotel, and Karen and her family own the bar as well as the vineyard because I have no idea who actually owns the bar :O**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Stubborn as a Mule

We ended up staying at hotel-restaurant place on top of a mountain, own by an elderly couple named Ilea and Henry. They gave Jonathon one room, and Vaughn and I the other. We couldn't really tell them we all wanted separate rooms because Vaughn and I were supposed to be married...

After Jonathon had safely secured his jewels and we had all put the few possessions we had bought in the cities in our rooms, we went back outside to explore the village more. It was early spring, the second or third. I didn't really know because I haven't been keeping track since we left.

We visited the farm that Diego said belonged to Jack. When we walked through the opening in the wooden fence, I saw a woman with wavy pink hair with a green headband, light red eyes, a red dress with brown top and a white shirt underneath. She was standing in front of a rather large house with a red roof and yellow door, watching a little girl with the same pink hair waddle around in front of her. There was a big field in the middle of the farm, with some seeds in it. There was a man with brown hair, a green and yellow hat on, blue overalls, a white shirt and gloves, a red kerchief around his neck, and tall black boots.

No one realized we were there until the little girl spotted us, and ran to the woman and hid behind her dress. The woman looked up at us and smiled.

"Hello," she said. "Can I help you?"

"Um..." I said, slowly stepping forward. "My name's Sarah, and this is my husband, Daniel, and his brother, Oliver. We came here on a trip."

"Oh, how wonderful!" the woman said, clapping her hands together. "Jack!" she called out to the man in the field. "There are some people here on a trip! Come meet them!" she turned back to us and smiled again. "I'm Popuri, and this is my daughter, Tina," she put her hand on the little girl's head.

"Hewo," the little girl said. She looked at us, and her eyes lit up at Vaughn. "Mommy, look," she whispered to Popuri. "Dere's a cowboy!"

The man, Jack, walked over to where Popuri and Tina were standing.

"Hello," he said with a smile. "I'm Jack."

"Hi," Jonathon said. "I'm Oliver. This is my brother, Daniel, and his wife, Sarah."

"Nice to meet you all," Jack said.

Once we were done there, Vaughn and Jonathon went to check out the Sprite's Cave while I went to the Bakery and Cafe.

I walked through the dark wood door into a nice, warm, homely room. There was a counter at the end of the room, with some stools lining it and tables and chairs scattered across the room.

"Hello," a voice said behind the counter.

I looked up and saw a woman with short, brown hair, matching eyes, and a blue dress with a white apron on. "Hi," I said.

"I'm Elli," she said. "Are you new here?"

"I'm on vacation with my husband and brother-in-law," I told her, and sat on one of the stools.

"Oh, how long will you be staying for?" Elli asked, smiling.

"A few weeks..." I said, running my finger along the counter. "It all depends on how everything... goes..."

Elli nodded. "Can I get you anything?" she asked. "We have cake, pie, cookies, tea, and our own special drink called Cabinet."

"I'll just have a cup of tea," I said, and began playing with my bandana.

Elli turned around and began making the tea. "So, where are you from?"

I froze. Jonathon had said not to tell anyone we're from Sunny Island... say we're from the city.

"Um..." I said, tapping my finger nervously against the counter. "I'm from the city..."

"Oh, really?" Elli said. "Which one?"

What was the name of the city we were just in? "Uh..." I muttered, tapping faster. "E-Emerald City..."

"Ah," Elli said, placing a cup in front of me. "I've been there. Too filthy for me, but some people like it."

I nodded, and drank my tea in silence. Once I was finished, I paid Elli 20 G for it and left.

When I walked onto the street, I saw Vaughn and Jonathon heading my way. I waved to them and ran over to them.

"Hey," I said, brushing a piece of hair out of my eyes. "How was the cave?"

"Boring, empty, cold..." Vaughn muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Just like your heart," Jonathon said teasingly, poking Vaughn in the shoulder.

Vaughn glared at the thief and growled.

"Quit fighting!" I said, slapping them both on the arm.

The two men shot each other one last death look and then turned back to me.

"We were just heading to the bar," Jonathon explained. "Wanna come?"

I wrinkled my noise in disgust and shoke my head. "No thanks..." I muttered. "I don't drink..."

"Please," Vaughn whispered. "Haven't I spent enough time alone with this creep?"

"Says the anti-social cowboy!" Jonathon said defensively.

"At least I'm not a thief," Vaughn pointed out with a shrug.

"According to national news you are," Jonathon said pointing a finger in Vaughn's face.

"Don't ever point at me again with your fingers or I'll break it in half," Vaughn said through gritted teeth.

"Stop fighting!" I yelled, and grabbed both their fingers. "Or _I'll _break your fingers!"

They both shut up, and we slowly went to the bar. Vaughn ordered a glass of liquor, Jonathon had some wine, and I had a cup of water. Like I said, I don't drink.

"This town is so boring..." Jonathon said, taking a sip of his wine. "It's so small, rural, and... dirty."

"Welcome to the country," I said, twirling the ice cubes around with my straw.

"I hate the country," Jonathon said, slamming his glass on the table. "Why did I come here with you guys?"

"Because," Vaughn said through gritted teeth. "We don't wanna get caught,"

"By who?" we all looked up to girl with long brown hair with blonde highlights. She was wearing a white tank top, purple vest, jeans shorts, knee-high white socks and brown shoes.

"Uh..." Jonathon said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"None of your business," Vaughn snapped before Jonathon could say something stupid.

"Well excuse me," the girl said, placing her hand son her hips. "For all I know ya'll could be criminals on the run!"

We all froze. I could see the colour draining from Vaughn and Jonathon's faces, and suspected mine looked the same.

"We run a respectful business here," she continued on. "Now tell me who ya'll don't wanna get caught by or get out!"

"What are you, the police?" Vaughn scoffed, getting over his fear of her previous words.

The girl bit her lip, and stared at him. "I ain't scared of you, cowboy," she said triumphantly.

"So?" Vaughn asked, taking a sip from his liquor.

The girl slammed her hand on the table, shaking our drinks. Everyone else in the bar looked up at us.

"Who are ya'll runnin' from?" she asked sternly. "Tell me."

"Why would we be criminals?" I said, trying my best to sound like I thought it was ridiculous.

The girl shrugged. "Anyone can be a criminal," she said. "It ain't that hard."

I looked at Vaughn then at Jonathon. They were both looking at each other, as if having a silent conversation over what to do.

Just as Jonathon opened his mouth to speak, a group of huge men in suits and sunglasses came bursting through the bar door. They were all carrying guns and aiming at everyone in the room.

One of them saw us, and nudged another Sunglass Guy and nodded towards us. Every other Sunglass Guy in the convoy turned toward us, and I could hear the clicking of their guns getting ready to shoot.

One lifted their gun slighted, motioning for us to get up. We obeyed, and lifted our hands above our hands. As they slowly began moving towards us, Jonathon looked at Vaughn and me, then at the door.

"Run!" he screamed, and we all darted towards the exit.

**Me: Hello, and welcome to WDA Talk Show! Our guest today is Elli!**

**Elli: Hi.**

**Me: So, do you like owning a Bakery and Cafe or being a nurse?**

**Elli: I like being a nurse because I love helping people, but owning a Bakery and Cafe is fun, too.**

**Me: Cool. So what type of things do you sell at the Bakery and Cafe?**

**Elli: We sell cake, pie, cookies, tea, and a special drink called Cabinet. You know, the usual.**

**Me: I like cake... especially red velvet! But red dye makes me like really hyper...**

**Elli: ... **

**Me: *smiles***

**Elli: Um, ok, I, uh, better go...**

**Me: Bye!**


	16. On the Run

**My power never did go out :P But we have a ton of snow. My sister put snow down my back this morning D: It was coldddddd!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

On the Run

We all started racing towards the exit as fast as possible. The Sunglass Guys were quick and blocked the exit from us, but Jonathon quickly brought the biggest down by smashing his wine glass over his head. We slipped through the hole in the barricade and out the door.

We dashed down the street past the church and turned near the Bakery and Cafe and Tool and Souvenir Shop. When I looked back, I could see the Sunglass Guys were in hot pursuit of us.

I started running faster, and Jonathon and Vaughn did the same. People were starting to crowd out of their houses to see what was going on.

"Aren't they here on a trip?" I heard someone ask.

"Why are they being chased?" another asked.

"I don't know," a girl with long black hair and glasses answered. "Are they criminals?"

I tried to ignore them and kept running, as fast as I could. As we ran out of the town, I jumped into the forest just as the Sunglass Guys rounded the corner. Vaughn and Jonathon weren't quick enough, and had to keep running. I stayed ducked behind some bushes until the Sunglass Guys were gone, and so were the villagers who were also chasing Vaughn and Jonathon.

I peeked my head out of the leaves and saw that there was no one on the path. I began running through the trees, swatting branches out of the way as I did so. I skipped across a piece of bare land, and continued making my way to the hotel. Hopefully Vaughn and Jonathon had managed to out-run the Sunglass Guys. I don't know what I'd do if they got caught and thrown into jail...

I eventually made it to Moon Mountain Summit, and the hotel. I burst through the door and quickly made my way up my hotel room. I fumbled with the key, and unlocked the door. Once inside, I slammed the door shut, locked it as much as I could and moved a dresser in front of it.

Finding my room empty, I picked up the hotel phone and dialled Jonathon's room number, hoping that the two of them had managed to get there safely.

"Hello?" a voice asked softly on the other end. I sighed a breath of relief. It was Vaughn...

"Vaughn!" I cried into the receiver. "It's me, Chelsea? Are you guys alright?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Vaughn said. He too sounded relieved.

"How are we going to get out of this?" I asked, sitting down on the bed.

"I don't know," Vaughn sighed. "We're probably going to have to wait until night time, and sneak out then."

"Ok," I said, nodding, even though they couldn't see me. "Call me when it's time to go."

"Ok," Vaughn said, and hung up.

* * *

At ten pm, the hotel phone rang and I picked up. It was Vaughn.

"You ready?" he asked. I could hear something clanging in the background. It was probably Jonathon and his jewels.

"Yep," I said, placing a hand on my rucksack. "I'll meet you in the hall."

"Ok," Vaughn said, and I put the phone back down in its place.

I moved the dresser from the door as best I could, and unlocked it. I slowly opened the door, and when I saw Vaughn and Jonathon standing in the hallway, opened it all the way.

We quietly made our way down the hall and outside, where we began running as fast as we could towards the beach. There was a ferry there that would take us to this place called Castanet Island. We had to hurry, since it leaves at 10:10.

We ran down the mountain and across the stream near Sprite's Cave, where I thought I saw a small sparkle floating in the darkness. I shook it off and continued running past the vineyard and Jack's farm, and finally to the beach.

Quickly, we loaded onto the boat and saw on one of the benches. It was only a short trip, so there were no cabins. I sat beside Vaughn and rested my head on his shoulder, and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

When I woke up, Vaughn was nudging me in the shoulder. I sat up straight and saw a beautiful island coming into view. There was a small dock that led into a town, and I could see a huge mountain towering behind a little church. I also could faintly see a small farm.

The ferry pulled into the dock, and we all got off. A stout man came walking towards us, and I swear he looked like a living, breath Oompa Loompa. He had a round head with gray hair that curled at the top, and was wearing a fancy blue suit.

"Hello, there!" he said with a smile. "Welcome to Castanet Island! I'm Hamilton, the mayor of Harmonica Town!"

"Hi," I said. "I'm... Sarah, and this is my husband, Daniel, and his brother... Oliver."

"Nice to meet you all," Hamilton said. "So, what brings you to our lovely Castanet Island?"

"We're traveling the world," Jonathon said. "We thought visiting a nice, rural island like this would be relaxing and enjoyable."

"Wonderful," Hamilton said. "Would you like a tour, or would you rather explore the island on your own?"

"We're fine, thank you," I said.

"Very well," Hamilton said. "The Ocarina Inn is just over there. There are plenty of rooms for you."

We nodded our thanks and headed over to the Inn. When we opened the dark double doors, we saw there was a huge square counter in the middle of the room with a small kitchen behind it.

There was an old lady standing in the kitchen with curly pink hair in two twirled pony tails and a bun on her head. She was wearing a red neck kerchief, a yellow shirt, blue skirt, and a white apron with pink embroidery.

She was talking to a girl with short blonde hair with half of it in two small braids held together by red bows, wearing a dark blue poofy dress with a white apron.

There was a woman leaning against the counter, looking through something that looked like a menu. She had short brown hair, and was wearing a beautiful green and purple dress.

A man was standing beside her with a book and pen in front of him. He had short grey hair and was wearing a khaki button-up shirt, green vest, and black pants.

"Hello!" the woman in the green dress said when she saw us. "How can I help you?"

"Uh, we're here on a trip," I said. "And we were just wondering if we could check in here."

The pink-haired woman and braid girl looked up from the pot they were leaning over.

"Of course you can check in here," the man said with a smile. "Just sign in here," he pointed to the log book. "And I'll give you your room keys!"

"Ok..." I said quietly. We all signed the book, and the man gave us our keys.

"I'm Jake, by the way," he said with a smile. "This is my wife, Colleen, and the women behind her are my mother, Yolanda, and our daughter, Maya."

"Nice to meet you," I said. "I'm Sarah, this is my husband, Daniel, and his brother, Oliver."

"Great," Jake said. "I hope you enjoy your stay here with us."

I nodded at him, and we all made our way up the stairs.

Hopefully they won't find us here.

**Me: So they're in the world of Amimal Parade now :) It's kind of weird to think of them being there, because the graphics are so different o_O Like I picture the Castanet people like they are in the game, and Chelsea, Vaughn, and Skye/Jonathon as IoH graphics. It looks REALLY weird :O Where do you think they'll go after Castanet? Tell me in your review :3**


	17. Two of a Kind

**This chapter's really cute in the beginning :3 I don't really know if everyone can see Finn, but in this story only farmers can see Harvest Sprites ^_^ **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Two of a Kind

I looked down at the little yellow sprite in front of me. He had this angry look on his face and he was stomping his little feet against the ground. I think he was screaming at me, but I couldn't really tell what he was saying.

There was a woman in front of me who was also staring at the sprite. She had light pink hair that curved around her chin, pale red eyes, and was wearing a yellow shirt with a small orange tank top over top, a pink skirt covered in pockets, black shorts, tall brown boots, and red-rimmed white gloves.

"Uh..." I said nervously. "What's wrong with him?"

The woman's head snapped up at me. "You can see him?" she whispered.

I nodded. "Yeah..." I muttered. "Why wouldn't I be able to?"

"He only lets certain people see him," she explained. "Like farmers or something."

"Oh," I said, looking back at the little sprite. "So, what's he doing?"

"Having a fit," the woman said casually. "This happens a lot... He has such a temper. I'm Angela, by the way."

"Sarah," I said, shaking her hand.

"I do _not_ have a temper!" the sprite said whirling around to face Angela.

"Yeah, you do, Finn," she answered. "You practically exploded when I didn't want to go see the Harvest Goddess."

"That was five years ago!" the sprite screamed. "Maybe I've learned to control my temper!"

"If you had, you wouldn't be screaming at me," Angela said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Who are you talkin' to Mommy?" I looked past Angela and saw a little girl of about three or four standing in the doorway of a house. She had long blue hair and golden eyes. She was wearing the cutest little green dress.

"Oh, I'm just talking to this nice lady who... came for a visit on the island!" Angela answered with a smile.

The little girl had her thumb stuck in her mouth. She jumped down from the small step in front of the house and came running towards Angela.. She wrapped her arms around her leg and looked at me.

"Hello, there," I said, smiling. "What's your name?"

"Lilia," the girl said, chewing on her thumb.

"What a pretty name," I said. "And how old are you?"

Lilia held up five fingers. "Thwee," she said.

Angela smiled at the little girl and put two of her fingers down. "That's a three, sweetheart."

Lilia looked at her fingers. "Oh," she said, and put her hand back down. I heard footsteps behind me, and I turned to see Vaughn and Jonathon walking our way with a guy who had blue hair and golden eyes like Lilia. He had a flaming blue bandana in his hair, and was wearing a red shirt, green and black jacket, jeans, tall brown boots, a yellow belt, and black gloves.

"Daddy!" Lilia cried, and ran to the blue haired man. He picked her up and swung her around in his arms, while Lilia giggled madly.

The man walked over to where Angela and I were standing, and was followed by Vaughn and Jonathon.

"Sarah, this is my husband, Luke," Angela said, looping her arm through his.

"Hello," I said, smiling at him. "I'm Sarah."

"Hi," Luke said, returning the smile. "You must be Daniel's wife. He told me about you."

For a second I thought, _Who? I don't know any Daniels..._ But then I remembered that was Vaughn's fake name, and nodded.

Lilia began looking around the farm for this Daniel person, and when she saw Vaughn, her eyes grew wide and she buried her face in Luke's shoulder.

"Daddy, dere's a cowboy in the yard," she whispered. "Is he gonna shoot us?"

Luke laughed and pulled his daughter away from his shoulder. "No, Lilia, he's not going to shoot us," he said. "He's not a mean cowboy."

"I'm not so sure about that..." Jonathon muttered, and Vaughn elbowed him in the stomach. Jonathon keeled over, and gasped, "See what I mean?"

Lilia giggled at the sight, which made Vaughn smile a little. I always knew he had a soft spot in his heart of stone. And I guess little girls was it.

"Would you like to join us for dinner?" Angela asked once Jonathon had recovered.

"Oh, no thank you," I said apologetically.

"Ok," Angela said. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

I nodded, and we left. Right before she was about to go inside, Lilia turned around and called after Vaughn.

"Bye, bye, cowboy!"

* * *

I looked through the menu at the Ocarina Inn, wondering what I should have. There were tons of things to choose from... much more than the Cafe and Diner back home combined.

Home.

Memories of the island began rushing through my mind, and I found myself trying to fight back tears.

Vaughn, seeing this, grabbed my hand and looked worriedly at me. "What's wrong, Chelsea?" he whispered in a voice only Jonathon and I could hear.

"I just miss the island..." I whispered back, wiping the tears away with the back of my free hand.

"It'll be ok..." Vaughn said softly to me. "We'll be back there in no time."

I smiled at him, and looked back at the menu. I was glad Vaughn was beginning to show signs of actually wanting to socialize with people and be nice.

I finally decided on the salmon fried rice and some hot coffee. Vaughn had the mushroom and egg rice, and Jonathon had the seafood curry.

"I've never had seafood curry before," he said when Colleen put the plate in front of him. "Never even knew it existed..."

"Then you must now be as much of a curry fan as you thought," Vaughn said, stabbing his fork into his bowl of egg rice.

Jonathon glared at his brother, and began mixing his food around on the plate.

"Where do we go after this?" I asked, taking a sip of my coffee. "I mean, if Regis's men find us?"

There was silence for a minute, but then Jonathon spoke up.

"I was thinking of asking some people around here if they know anything about Zephyr Town," he said. "I didn't get a chance to in Flowerbud Village."

"Do you think his men know we're here?" I asked.

"They most likely know we're close to here," Vaughn said. "We should probably leave in about two days; go somewhere more rural. I heard from Luke that this place is getting busier and busier."

I sighed, and took a bite out of my salmon fried rice. "I should have just stayed out of this," I muttered to myself. "If I had, I wouldn't be here... I'd be back home looking after my farm and helping Julia..."

"Hey, it's all your fault," Jonathon said. "You said I'd get caught, so you should've known you'd get caught and accused just like me."

"It's _not_ just _my_ fault," I snapped angrily at Jonathon. "It's _your_ fault because you were too damn stubborn to give up! So Vaughn and I had to go save your sorry ass and got accused of something we didn't do!"

"Chelsea, can you lower your voice?" Vaughn said quietly. "This isn't the right place to be yelling about that."

"Fine," I said. I got up, and walked upstairs to our room, where I slammed the door shut.

**Me: Hello, and welcome to WDA Talk Show! Our guest today is Finn!**

**Finn: Have you seen the Harvest Goddess? Come on! I need to take you to the Harvest Goddess!**

**Me: I don't need to see the Harvest Goddess! *swats at Finn* Geez, you're so annoying!**

**Finn: I am not annoying! I'm just doing my job?**

**Me: You have a job? I thought you were just a little sparkle that follows people around. Oh my God, that would be so cool!**

**Finn: -_- Yeah, whatever... I need to go yell at Angela about something now... *flies away***

**Me: *watches Finn leave* Bye, bye! Oh, and the title was talking about Chelsea and Finn and their temper.**

**Finn: *zooms back* _I do not have a temper!_**

**Me: *whispers* He has a temper. **


	18. Promise

**Yayyyyyyyy. I have really nothing to say right now :O SHOCKING! Sooooo, let's just go to the disclaimer!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Promise

I had been laying face-down in a pillow for about fifteen minutes before someone knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" I muttered into the soft fabric of the pillow.

"It's me," I heard a voice call from behind the door.

"Who's 'me'?" I asked, knowing very well that it was Vaughn.

There was a pause. "Vaughn,"

"What do you want?" I asked, lifting my head up from the pillow. There were two big wet spots on it from where I had been crying.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

I sat up straight thought for a minute. "Fine..." I mumbled, and grabbed the pillow I had been crying into and hugged it into my chest.

The doorknob slowly turned and Vaughn walked in, closing the door behind him.

I rested my chin on the pillow, and looked at the floor. He sat down beside me and put a comforting arm around my shoulder.

"Listen, I know you're upset about all this," he whispered. "Do you think I want to be here? I'd much rather be back home, watching Julia freak out when she gets on the scale and finds she gained ten pounds."

His last comment made me smile a little, and I rested my head on his shoulder.

"She's going to be so ticked when she has her baby and I'm not going to be there," I said, wiping my eyes.

"She'll be fine," Vaughn said. "After all, she grew up with me as a cousin."

"You're not that bad," I said quietly, wrapping my arms around him. "You're actually kind of like Gannon. Big and scary on the outside, but really soft and nice on the inside. But you don't scream at me when I decided not to buy something from you."

Vaughn smiled and me. "Everything will work out ok," he told me. "I promise."

* * *

The next day we decided to go and explore Castanet Island. We had to act like we were here on vacation, and not hiding from some huge corporation.

We walked out of the Inn, and decided to head east towards Angela's farm. We crossed a huge stone bridge, and walked along a wide dirt path, which got gradually narrow. There was a small cliff to one side of us at one point, which led down to a beach.

When we reached Angela's farm, I could see Lilia sitting underneath a tree playing with two dolls while her mother worked in the fields. When she saw us she jumped up and ran towards the fence that blocked the path.

She was wearing an adorable purple flower print dress with green tights and a short-sleeve white sweater.

"Mommy, look it's de cowboy!" Lilia said, pointing to Vaughn.

Angela looked up from the turnip she was attempting to pull out of the ground and smiled at us. She walked over to her daughter and put her hand on her head. Lilia wrinkled her nose and slipped out from under her.

"Gross, Mommy, your hands are cover din turnip germs!" she said and began swiping at her hair.

Angela laughed at the little girl. "Oh, stop being silly," she said.

"I'm not being silly!" Lilia said, and stomped her foot on the ground. "Your hands are all icky from tryin' to save dose poor vegetables from de nasty ground!"

"Well, I'll wash them later," Angela said.

"You better," Lilia said, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm gonna go play wid my dollies now!" She skipped off back to the tree she had been sitting, and picked up the two dolls she had left laying on the ground.

"So, are you enjoying your stay so far?" Angela asked, now that her daughter was out of the way and happy.

"Yes," I said smiling. "It's so beautiful here... much nicer than the city."

"I used to live in the city," Angela said. "But then I came here, and started this farm."

I nodded, and began looking around. It was much nicer than my farm, but then again I had only been working on mine for about a year, and she's been for like five years.

"Your farm's really nice," I said. "You must have put lots of effort into it."

"You have no idea," Angela sighed. "It took me two years to get it even close to where it is now."

Again, I nodded. We stood in silence, and when I had finished admiring her farm, I looked back at her and realized she was staring at me in a funny way.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"You just look... familiar." Angela said. "Like I've seen you somewhere."

My heart stopped. Of course... she probably had a TV, and watched the News every day. _I_ had been on the News not even a season ago, and so had Vaughn. I can't believe we didn't even think about that!

I looked at Vaughn and saw that his face had turned pale. He was probably thinking the same thing I was.

"Oh, um, I doubt that," I said.

"But I feel like I've seen you before, and heard your voice somewhere..." Angela said, tapping her cheek. "But I just can't put my finger on it."

"M-Maybe you're confusing me with someone else," I said quickly.

Angela continued looking at me. "Luke most likely knows..." she muttered, and turned towards her house. "Luke! Get out here! I need to ask you something!"

"Ok, but make it quick," Luke said as he walked out of the house. "I need to give the panda bear a bath."

"Panda bear?" Jonathon said, amazed. "You have a pet _panda bear_?"

"Yes," Angela said. "His name is Tuully."

"So, what did you need to ask me?" Luke asked his wife, trying to get to the point.

"Oh, do you recognize Sarah from anywhere?" Angela asked. "Because I do, and have no idea where..."

Luke looked at me for about a minute before realization spread across his face.

"Chelsea Smith!" he cried, snapping his fingers. "She looks just like her! You know, the one who got buried under a collapsing house and went into a coma for two years!"

"Oh yeah!" Angela said, clapping her hands. "Her and Julia Wilkens! And then she went around saying that this other guy, Vaughn Anderson, was in the collapse too and he turned out to be! She came back from Sunny Island with him and everything!"

I was stuck to the ground now, frozen. I felt icy cold, like someone had just stuck me in a freezer for ten hours.

Luke nodded. "And now that I think about, Daniel looks just like that Vaughn guy!"

I somehow managed to turn my head to look at Vaughn. He too seemed to be frozen to the ground.

"Let's go look them," Angela suggested. "Maybe we can find a picture and compare them or something."

"Sure," Luke said.

Angela turned to us. "Come on inside," she said, waving her arm towards the house.

All I could do was nod and smile weakly. I slowly followed after Angela, who called for Lilia to come inside. As we were about to enter the house, I slipped my hand into Vaughn's and held it tight.

When we walked through the door there was a white door off to the side with the word 'Lilia' spelt out in pink wood letters on it. There was a queen-sized bed in the top right corner with a side table beside it. A red box with a hammer painted on it was about a foot from the side table, and there was a large, dark wood dresser and bookshelf beside it. A huge kitchen sat in the top left corner, and below it was a medium sized dark wood TV and a black dial phone. There was a big white couch in front of the TV, along with a skinny black chair. A laptop was sitting on the chair, its power light flashing. There were some oil heaters along the wall beside the dial phone, and pictures were scattered across the walls. There was also a black bunny hopping around, a turtle hiding in its shell, and a black and white collie.

Luke walked over to the laptop and picked it up. Opening it, he sat down on the chair. We all crowded around him, me still gripping Vaughn's hand. Lilia had run off, probably to her bedroom. Luke clicked on the Internet, and then on Google. I began shaking as he typed in "chelsea smith".

A whole bunch of websites popped up, including one for Google News. There was a picture of me running from the bar in Flowerbud Village, and the words "Chelsea Smith visits Flowerbud Village" written beside it.

Luke squinted at the link, and before I could stop him, clicked on it. An article appeared on screen, with the same picture of me running in the top left corner.

"Chelsea Smith, Vaughn Anderson, and Jonathon Anderson are on the run from the corporate giant, Regis Regison." it read. "According to the multi-millionaire, he caught the trio stealing from his home on Sunny Island. You may remember Chelsea Smith and Vaughn Anderson as two of the three victims of the collapse that happened on that very island two years ago. Now, does Chelsea Smith seem like the type to be stealing from her interview last Winter?" There was a small video beside this paragraph, and I could see it was the interview I had done for the News.

"Well, according to Regis's daughter, Sabrina Regison, Ms. Smith and Vaughn Anderson are innocent. She told her father that they were trying to stop Vaughn Anderson's brother, Jonathon Anderson, from stealing from Regison. Is this true? We don't know.

"They were last spotted at Flowerbud Village, where they managed to escape Regison's hired agents. They're now presumed to be on or near Castanet Island..."

At this point I stopped reading. I held Vaughn's hand tightly and closed my eyes. It was silent for a minute while Luke and Angela continued reading the article. After about five minutes, I opened my eyes and found them both staring at us.

Angela looked back to the computer, most likely to the picture of me, and then back at us.

"Are they talking about you?" she whispered. Fear was etched into her face, and it looked like she didn't know what to make of us.

I bit my lip and turned my head to look at Vaughn. He had his hat tilted to cover his eyes, and was looking solemnly at the floor. I turned back to face Angela and Luke.

Slowly, I nodded. "Yes," I said quietly. "It's about us."

**Me: Dun, dun, dunnnnn... What shall happen next? *gets weird look on face* Sorry if this chapter was a bit confusing... -.- At least I had detail! It took me a while to describe the house, because I kept having to look things up and blah, blah, blah... I think Lilia's just the cutest! I may have to bring her back later in the story... You can see the dress she was wearing on the Animal Parade Ushi No Tane site. It's in the "Clothing, Female Child" section, the Flower Print dress :P**


	19. The Dark Figure

**In this chapter the villagers may seem a bit OOC, but they just really want to do what's best for their little island and are doing what they think is right :3 There, that's my explanation for any OOC-ness in this chapter. Also, this is where the first nightmare "comes true". Took a while, didn't it? I'm considering making a seqeaul (I hate that word... I can never spell it :'(...) to this story, too. It probably won't be as long but... Yeah... I don't like making my stories _too_ long and it will probably take until like chapter 24 or something to get this whole thing done and over-wth, and there's still so much in store for, that just wouldn't make sense in a different story. **

**tommyf2: Thank you _very_ much for you review! It made my day :D **

The Dark Figure

It was dark. There was hardly any light except for the moon and the stars. I ran down the dirt path, my feet kicking up dust and rocks. I could hear them behind me; their own feet hitting the ground as they ran, trying to find me.

When I looked back I could see their shadowy figures. They were getting closer. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It all seemed so... familiar. Like it happened to me before.

I kept running, and didn't stop. My eyes stayed closed, and I kept trying to convince myself this was all just a horrible nightmare, and I'd wake up safe and sound in my bed back home.

But it was real.

If it was a dream, I would have woken up when I fell.

The path beneath my feet just ended, and my eyes snapped open. I looked down to see a river, coming closer and closer towards me.

Then it hit me.

This was almost exactly like that dream I had had just before I woke up from my coma. I had been running in a dark room, being chased by a dark figure, and then I'd fallen through the floor.

But this time, I was outside during the middle of the night, being chased by angry villagers who wanted me off their island. And I fell off a cliff into the water.

It was icy cold and chilled my body right to the bones. I didn't know what to do. When I looked back up at the path, I saw that the villagers had stopped and were looking down at me.

"What should we do?" someone cried. "We can't just leave her in there to die!"

"She won't die!" another said. "I'm sure she can swim!"

"Should we fish her out?" I heard Luke ask.

"We probably should," someone said. "After all, we need to get her off the island somehow!"

"Start swimming!" Angela yelled. "Swim to the shore and we'll get you out!"

Not knowing what else to do, I started swimming to the bank of the water. I climbed onto the sandy beach, dripping wet and freezing. A rope was lowered, and I used it to climb up.

Someone picked me up, and carried me away to Harmonica Town, where I was put in Mayor Hamilton's office. They went out to find Vaughn and Jonathon, and left two guys to watch me so I didn't escape.

One of them looked like an Indiana Jones impersonator, and the other looked like he had spent way too much time in a cold, damp mine.

I sat in one of the chairs, looking around the office. I was still sopping wet, but it was warm in Hamilton's office so I wasn't cold.

The two guys guarding me chatted with each other while I sat in silence. After a while the office became boring for me and I began twirling my "wedding ring" around on my finger.

The men stopped talking and watched me. The ring was pure gold and had little diamonds built into the band. I also had an "engagement ring". This one was also gold, with a big pearl in the middle surrounded by diamonds and sapphires.

Indiana Jones began talking to the other guy again, but in lower voices. I could barely make out what they were saying.

"...think...rings...stolen..." was all I could hear.

I sighed and rested my head against the back of the chair.

* * *

A few minutes later, the door swung open and Luke and someone that looked like his father burst through lugging Vaughn and Jonathon behind them. Mayor Hamilton walked in behind them.

I jumped out of my seat and ran to Vaughn. I hugged him tightly, and kissed his cheek. We all sat down in the chairs in front of Hamilton's desk. The office was emptied except for us and the mayor.

"Now," Mayor Hamilton said, sitting behind his desk. "I heard that you three are wanted for the crime of thievery."

"Please, just let me─" I started, but stopped when he held up his hand.

"On this island we don't want trouble," he explained. "As much as I hate to, I'm going to have to turn you into the police. We can't have criminals running freely around, now can we?"

"Please, just listen to me," I said quickly. "Vaughn and I didn't steal anything! We were trying to stop Jonathon from stealing! But we got accused of robbing, too!"

"I'd like to believe you," Hamilton said. "But I can't. Calvin!"

The door opened and Indiana Jones walked in.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Call the police," Mayor Hamilton said. "Tell them we have Chelsea Smith, Vaughn Anderson, and Jonathon Anderson."

"I hate that name..." Jonathon muttered.

Mayor Hamilton ignored him and continued speaking as if this were a normal conversation. "So, Chelsea, I hear you're a farmer," he said.

"Yes," I mumbled. "But I had to leave my farm and all my friends..."

"Well, tell me about your friends," Hamilton said with a smile.

"I'd rather not," I said, leaning on my hand.

"Oh, come on," the mayor coaxed. "It'll help pass the time until the police arrive."

I stared at him. He had to be crazy! This man couldn't be mentally able to serve as mayor!

"No thank you," I said, and turned to look out the window. I noticed that Vaughn and Jonathon were also looking at the same window.

Hamilton laughed. "If you're thinking about escaping you can just forget about it," he said.

Jonathon turned to look at the stout man behind the desk. He stared at him for a minute, and everything was silent.

Suddenly, Jonathon leapt out of his chair and placed his hands on the mayor's desk.

"As much as I hate to," he said, mimicking Hamilton. "I have to do this."

He pushed hard and the desk flipped, pinning Mayor Hamilton to the ground. Before anyone could come into the office to stop us, Jonathon dashed for the window, pulled it up and jumped through it.

Vaughn and I did the same, landing on the same roof as Jonathon. We jumped down and ran through the streets, avoiding any villagers until we made it to the dock. There was a cargo ship there. There was an old man wearing a captain's uniform and a younger man with a straw hat on loading the cargo onto it.

We snuck past them and managed to climb on board the ship. We went below decks and hid behind some crates. Quiet as mice, we stayed there, not moving a muscle, until the two men had finished loading up the ship and we could hear the sound of waves lapping against the sides.

"Where do we go now?" I asked, getting up out of my crouched position and sitting on a large grate with a picture of a carrot on it.

Vaughn looked in disgust at the picture, and stretched his legs out.

"I don't know..." he muttered. "Know anywhere good Jonathon?"

The leopard-clad man nodded. "Sure I do!" he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Forget-Me-Not Valley!"

**Me: I didn't like that chapter... It's crappy :( **

**Angela: Uh... *ahem***

**Me: Oh, um, hello and welcome to WDA Talk Show! As you've probably realized, our guest today is Angela!**

**Angela: Hellooo!**

**Me: First off, I need to ask you something.**

**Angela: Um, sure, whatever.**

**Me: Don't you think Lilia is just so adorable! ^_^**

**Angela: o_O Uh... Yeah...?**

**Me: I do too! :D I can just picture her sitting there underneath a tree playing with some dolls and what-not!**

**Angela: Sure...**

**Me: *laughs all crazy-like* **

**Angela: *screams and runs away***

**Me: '_' Awww... She left... :'(**


	20. Innocent

**The Forget-Me-Not Valley in this story is the one from Another Wonderful Life, not DS or DS Cute. I just really like the famr layout from AnWL, plus that was the first Harvest Moon game I ever played so... **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Innocent

I stared down at the girl who stood in front of me. There was a huge smile on her face and her purple eyes twinkled in the early morning sunlight. Her head was tilted up to look me in the face, causing her brown hair to fall out of her face.

Jill.

"What are you doing here?"

Those were the first words I spoke to my sister when I climbed off the boat. She had come running to me and hugged me tightly.

"I live here," Jill replied.

"You _what_?" I screamed. "I thought you were living with Grandma! You're too young to be living on your own!"

"I'm almost nineteen!" she said defensively. "And Grandma was smothering me like a baby! So, I moved here and started a ranch, just like you!"

"I still think you should have stayed with Grandma," I said, annoyed with my little sister. "Does she even know where you are?"

"Of course!" Jill said, flailing her arms in the air. "I wouldn't just run off! She actually seemed a little happy for me to be going..."

I glared at the smiling brunette in front of me. She seemed so innocent; it was hard for me to stay mad at her for too long. Even when we were kids, she would always get that last Popsicle or swing on the swingset because I always gave in to her innocence.

Suddenly, I felt a hand resting on my shoulder and looked up to find Vaughn. He was looking at Jill, as if contemplating whether he had seen her before or not.

"Oh, um, Vaughn," I said. "You remember my little sister, Jill, right?"

The cowboy stopped contemplating and nodded.

"Hi," Jill said, smiling.

Jonathon now walked up beside me, his feet kicking up sand as he stopped. I swear, Jill's face lit up like she had just seen an angel when she saw Jonathon standing there.

"H-Hello..." she muttered, her mouth hanging open.

Jonathon looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but shrugged it off. "Hello," he said in his cool demeanour.

"I-I'm Jill," Jill said quietly, rubbing the toe of her shoe into the ground.

"Skye," Jonathon said, sticking a hand in his pocket.

Vaughn and I both turned our heads and glared at him.

"What?" Jonathon said when he saw us. "That's my name." He said the sentence slowly, as if emphasizing it.

Jill looked at us, a confused expression on her face. "What are you guys talking about?" she asked.

"N-Nothing..." I muttered, snapping my attention from Jonathon to my little sister. "Why don't we, uh, go see your ranch!"

"Sure!" Jill cried, clapping her hands. "Follow me!"

We walked behind the energetic nineteen-year old up from the beach onto a skinny dirt path which led past a small swamp, some sort of tent on a hill, and a freaky lab-like place with two big poles at the sides that were sending shocks to each other. We got off the dirt path and onto a stone one, and walked past a big building which I assumed to be an Inn, and a residential area with three different sized houses. We then got back on the dirt road and onto a farm.

There was a small cabin as soon as we walked onto the ranch. Beside it was a tall, skinny building made of stones. In front of that was a big barn, with a grass-filled pasture behind it. There was another small cabin in the south east corner, beside a plot of land. There was a chicken coop beside the plot land, and another plot of land beside the chicken coop. There were crops in each plot of land, which had probably just sprouted.

"Well, this is my ranch!" Jill said proudly, opening her arms wide. "I know it's not much, but I have some crops which are growing very well, and a cow in the barn that's giving some milk... This place will take off before you know it!"

"It's not bad..." I said, walking around the small property. "It's a bit run-down, but it's nice..."

Jill smiled at me, and ran up to stand next to me. "Thanks, Chelsea," she said. "Oh! There's someone I want you to meet! Takakura!"

The door to the cabin by the ranch exit opened up, and a weathered man came out. He had dark hair and bushy eyebrows, and was wearing a white muscle shirt, jeans, black boots, and had a white towel around his neck.

"What is it, Jill?" he asked. His voice sounded tired and worn-out.

"I want you to meet my sister, Chelsea," Jill said, grabbing my arm and dragging me to the old man. "She's the rancher I was telling you about!"

"Hello," the man said, smiling. "I'm Takakura. Jill has told me so much about you."

"Hi," I said, returning the smile.

"So, what brings you to Forget-Me-Not Valley?" Takakura asked.

My smile faded. What was I supposed to say? We just got here! And I couldn't use the whole "I'm married to Vaughn and we're on vacation" shit because of Jill... Damn...

"Um..." I muttered, trying to think of a lie. "I... came here to... visit Jill! Yeah... Our grandmother told me she was here and I just wanted to drop by and see how she was doing!"

"But─" Jill started, but I stopped her by elbowing her in the stomach.

"Oh, well how nice," Takakura said. "I hope you enjoy your time here."

He walked back into the cabin, and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Why did you tell him you came to visit me?" Jill asked. "You didn't even know I was here!"

"It's a long story," I asked.

"We can discuss it over lunch!" Jill suggested. "I'm making tomamelo salad and earth soup!"

Jill's house was small, one-room building. There was a bed, a record player, a side table, a bookshelf, a TV, a bathroom, a table, and a small kitchen. She said she only got four channels on her TV: the weather, Crop Talk, horoscopes, and one that played a whole bunch of different shows.

Jonathon was a little wary about eating something called "tomamelo salad" and "earth soup". But when Jill explained tomamelo salad was just tomato and melon, and that earth soup was just carrots and potatoes, he dug right in. Vaughn wouldn't touch his food, since they all had vegetables.

"Vegetables are his worst nightmare," I told Jill when I saw the hurt expression on her face.

"Oh," Jill said. "So, why are you in Forget-Me-Not Valley?"

"Jill," I said, putting my hand on top of my little sister's. "I need to listen carefully."

She nodded, her pony-tail bobbing behind her.

"We're wanted," I said slowly. A look of horror crossed her face, and tears welled in her eyes. "But we didn't do anything wrong. Well, at least Vaughn and I didn't do anything wrong. We were just trying to stop Jon- er, Skye, from stealing from someone. But we got caught and were accused of stealing as well. So we came here to hide from the police."

"How long have you been running?" Jill asked, her violet eyes wide.

"Almost three weeks," I said, patting her hand. "We were told to stay away for a whole year, and to return to the island when the year was up."

"This is horrible!" Jill said, pulling her hand out from under mine. "My sister is _wanted_! She's a _criminal_!"

"I am not a criminal!" I exclaimed. "I was falsely accused of something I didn't do!"

"But then why are you running?" Jill cried, tears streaming down her face.

"Because I have to, Jill!" I yelled. "I didn't get a chance to prove my innocence! If I didn't run I would be sitting in a jail cell right now!"

"Well why can't you just go back and explain everything!" Jill asked, flailing her arms out.

"It's kind of too late for that!" I said. "The minute I set foot on that island they'll cuff me and throw me in jail, no doubt about it!"

"But what if they find you...?" Jill had stopped screaming now and was crying hysterically.

I sat in silence, watching my little sister cry.

"Then we'll just have to keep on running," I said, biting my lip. "Now, stop crying. There's no need for that! Like you said, you're nineteen!"

Jill looked up at me, a small smile on her face. "You sound just like mom," she said, wiping her nose.

**Me: :O Jill's in Forget-Me-Not Valley! :D I probably have school tomorrow (T_T) for the first time in a week... O_O The massive snow storm shut this place down for like three days. I didn't have school on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday and Friday was Parent-Teacher Conferences. But I'll have shcool tomorrow... Unless we get another snowstorm (they're predicting that) and school shut down AGAIN! My mother would lose her mind... My iPod says its supposed to be cloudy today and tomorrow, and snowy on Tuesday and Wednesday, then sunny on Thursday and Friday. The state actually adressed a State of Emergency for the snowstorm we just had o_O It was like a foot of snow! Well, I guess when you grow up with tons of snow...**


	21. Drowned Mouse

**This chapter is kind of short... Sorry! I hope the next one makes up for it thought :3**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Drowned Mouse

I sat by the bank of the river, my feet dangling over the side. The waterfall beside me roared loudly, drowning out all other sounds. Some water splashed up from the waterfall, damping my clothes and hair, but I didn't mind. It was so nice here...

Ever since we arrived in Forget-Me-Not Valley a week ago, we hadn't been caught, and no one's realized who we were. Well, they knew our real names, but they didn't know we were wanted.

Jonathon had to hide most of the time, since he was hated by the other villagers. According to him, he had been here before, and stolen from almost everyone in the valley. So, he had to hide in Jill's farmhouse.

I had started helping Jill on her farm. It felt so nice to be working again. I never really thought I'd miss farming, but I really did.

Suddenly, a huge splash erupted in the middle of the river. It drenched me completely, and I ended up looking like a drowned mouse. I jumped up, and looked across the river. Standing right across from me was Rock, who was showing off to Lumina.

He was talking to her and pointing to where the splash had come from. Lumina was smiling brightly up at him. He then bent down and picked up another rock, and tossed it further into the river. The splash was even bigger, and now I was soaking wet.

"Rock!" I screamed, shaking my arm. "What are you doing?"

Rock looked up from Lumina at me. A look of total surprised crossed his face.

"Oh, um, hey Chelsea!" he said waving. "Didn't see you there!"

"Obviously!" I cried, wringing out my shirt. "You're so hopeless!"

I stormed away, dirt and dust clinging to my wet clothes as I went. When I walked onto the farm, Jill looked up from her cow in the pasture, and started laughing.

"What happened to you?" she asked, running to the pasture fence.

"Rock happened," I snapped angrily. "That idiot was throwing rocks into the river, and splashed me!"

"Charming, isn't he?" Jill said sarcastically.

"Very," I said with a smirk. "I'm going to go dry off and get changed..."

Jonathon was sitting at the small table, reading a book on agriculture when I walked inside.

"Hey Chelsea! How y─" he started, but stopped when he saw me. "What happened to you? You're soaking wet!"

"Gee, I hadn't realized!" I said, flapping my arms in front of him. Some water flew off my arms and landed in his face.

"No need to be cranky!" he said, wiping his face.

I glared at him, and grabbed some dry clothes and went into the bathroom to get changed.

"Chelsea, did you realized we never got a chance to grab our things from the hotel in Castanet?" Jonathon asked when I stepped back into the main room.

"Yeah, so?" I asked, straightening my shirt.

"We never got to grab the _jewels_," Jonathon said. "Mayor Hamilton probably gave them back to Regis, who most likely realized we spent some of the money."

I froze. "That means..."

"We're going to have to pay him back." Jonathon finished my sentence. "Every penny."

"Damn it, I knew we shouldn't have spent that money!" I said. "Things keep getting worse and worse..."

I plunked myself down on Jill's bed, and began drying my hair with a towel.

"How much longer do we have until we can go back?" I asked.

"We've been gone for like four weeks..." Jonathon said, counting the days in his head. "So we have about three seasons left."

I groaned and fell back onto the bed.

"Can't we just go back and try to reason with Regis?" I asked, rubbing my forehead.

"Probably not," Jonathon said. "Remember what you said? The minute we set foot on that island they'll arrest us and throw us in jail."

"You know I really hate you right now?" I said, sitting up. "If you had just listened to us, we wouldn't be in this mess right now."

"I know, I know..." Jonathon said. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry won't change what you did," I said. "Unless you have some sort of potion... that could... change time..."

Oh. My. Goddess. Why hadn't I thought of it before! I was so stupid... We should have gone to her in the first place! Of course!

"I have an idea!" I exclaimed, jumping up. "But it's really dangerous."

* * *

"You can't be serious," Vaughn said when I told him and Jonathon my plan that night. "You _cannot _be serious!"

"I am!" I said. "I really, truly think she can help us."

"We can't go back to the island!" Jonathon said. "They'll arrest for sure!"

"Come on," I begged. "We won't get caught! We haven't been caught yet, and it's been a whole season!"

"No," Vaughn said. "We are _not_ going to see the Witch Princess!"

"But she can help us!" I said. "She come up with some potion or spell that'll turn back time so Jonathon _doesn't_ try and rob Regis and we _don't_ get caught and accused of stealing!"

"I doubt she can help us," Jonathon said.

"She can!" I said. "I know she can! She figured out my name without me telling her! She used some freaky ancient language!"

"Yeah, well that was a _name_," Vaughn said. "This is _time_ we're talking about. No one can turn back time!"

"But she can!" I cried. "I know it! And if you guys don't go, I'm going along!"

"Chelsea, it's way too dangerous," Vaughn said.

"I don't care!" I screamed. "This whole thing can be done and over with, just like that!" I snapped my fingers. "Please come with me..."

"No, Chelsea," Vaughn said.

"But don't you want this all to be over?" I asked.

"Of course I do," Vaughn said. "But if it means risking our freedom, then I don't."

"Then I'm going alone," I said sternly. "And you can't stop me."

**Me: Hello, and welcome to WDA Talk Show! Our guest today is Jill!**

**Jill: Hi!**

**Me: So, do you like farming?**

**Jill: Uh... Yeah...? I kind of have to...**

**Me: Cool. Do you like plants or animals better?**

**Jill: I animals, because they're just so darn cute! Plus, they have good income.**

**Me: *nods* I personally like plants, because you don't have to feed and brush them every say... -.-**

**Jill: Well plants are kind of expensive, because you have to buy all the seeds.**

**Me: But animals are more expensive! You have to buy them, their food, everything! Plants are so much cheaper.**

**Jill: But... it takes longer to get income from plants.**

**Me: Yeah, but when you _do_ get plant income, its a lot! Much more than animal income...**

**Jill: Whatever... I am not arguing with you about plants and animals! *walks away***

**Me: *bored holes in back of head with evil glare***


	22. History Book

**Yay for updates! I've been a little distracted from my writing by an RP forum. It's called "Harvest Moon Roleplaying Forum"... I think. The administrator is .. The title to this chapter doens't really make sense until you read the whole thing and think deeply about it. Try and figure it out :3**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

History Book

I watched Forget-Me-Not Valley disappear beneath the horizon. The sun was just beginning to rise, and the ocean was calm and peaceful... I sighed and rested my head against my arm.

It was dangerous for me to on deck, because a crew member or passenger might recognize me and turn me in. I walked away from the rail and down to my cabin, where I lay down on my bed and thought about what I was going to do.

When the boat docks, I'll go right in the middle of everyone else, so it'll be hard to see me. I'll then slip off the beach, and walk behind houses and make sure not to be seen. Since it would be around noon, all the villagers would be out walking around, visiting each other the Cafe and Diner.

Once I was past the houses and people, I would run across the bridge, through the trees to Witch Princess's house, where I would ask her to make me a potion to turn back time.

I got off of the bed and went over to the small, round window. I pulled open the curtain and looked out at the ocean. I had tried and tried to convince Vaughn and Jonathon to come with me, but they were staying in Forget-Me-Not Valley. They weren't too happy to see me leave, either.

"If you make it without getting caught," Jonathon had told me. "And this Witch's potion doesn't work, go to Zephyr Town. But if this Witch's potion _does_ work, well, stop me, no matter what. Cuff me to a bed, tie me to a tree... just stop me."

A huge wave lapped against the window, leaving it blurry and covered in drops of water. I closed the curtains and sat down on the chair in front of the desk.

I pulled over my small suitcase, opened it up and pulled out a book that I had bought from some fat guy in Forget-Me-Not Valley. Van, I think.

I sat in the chair, reading, for about an hour and a half. I eventually got bored and threw my book down. There was a TV in the cabin, so I went over and turned that on.

It was the News. I said on the bed, holding a pillow to my chest.

There a story about a little girl who went missing somewhere in the mountains... Her name was Cindy.

"Search and Rescue teams are still scouring the area where Cindy disappeared, around the small mountain village of Zephyr Town." The news reporter said. "She still hasn't been found."

_Hopefully they find her before Vaughn and Jonathon go to Zephyr Town... _I thought. _Or else they're in trouble..._

I was just about to call them when a different story came on.

"And now, the latest on the Bonnie and Clyde Search."

I put the phone down and rolled back onto bed, laughing a little at the name of the story. I stopped laughing when a picture of Vaughn and I appeared on screen.

It was a picture of us looking after Jill's cow, Hilda. I was laughing, and reaching into a bag of fodder. Vaughn had a small smile on his face, but he was trying to look like he was concentrating on brushing Hilda.

"Chelsea Smith and Vaughn Anderson were last spotted in Forget-Me-Not Valley, where it is said they are hiding with Smith's sister, Jill Smith." The reporter said.

"How do they know that?" I asked, crushing the pillow. "_How_ do they know that?"

"Authorities are closing in on the small town as we speak," she said.

"No!" I screamed.

"There has been no sign of Jonathon Anderson, and some suspect that he is hiding elsewhere."

I pounced for the phone, and began dialling Jill's phone number.

"Hello?" Jill answered.

"Jill!" I cried. "It's me, Chelsea! You need to hide. _Now_!"

"Chelsea, what's going on?" Jill asked. She sounded scared.

"There are police closing in on the town," I said. "They still think I'm there, and they don't know Jon─ Skye's there. All of you need to hide! They're going to arrest you, Jill! If they found you they'll arrest you for hiding criminals!"

"But where do I hide?" Jill asked.

"What about that sprite tree?" I said. "Just go eat the mushrooms and you'll be inside!"

"Good idea!" Jill said. "But there's only two mushrooms!"

"Then you'll have to share!" I cried. "Now hu─"

Before I could finish my sentence, the power on the boat flickered and went out. I put the phone down and went to the window and peered out. The sky was black and full of dark, ominous clouds. The sea looked like oil, and huge waves were beginning to appear. It started raining, and raindrops smacked against the window. A lightning bolt crashed above, nearly hitting the boat.

It seemed so much like what happened over three years ago...

The ship began rocking madly, and I toppled over. From past experience, I knew not to try and get up on my own. I crawled over to the desk and gripped it tightly, using it to pull myself up. I made it to window, and peeked out again. A dark shape was on the horizon now.

Sunny Island.

It seemed to be the centre of all the chaos going on around us. Dark clouds swirled around it, and lightening hit it mercilessly.

There was another boat, going full speed towards the island. Even at full power, it struggled and fought with the waves. The boat rocked again, and I fell back to the floor, hitting my head hard against it.

Stars began appearing in front of my eyes, and in a complete daze, I swiped at them like they were annoying little bugs. I lay on the floor, waving my arms at the stars in front of me. The storm raged on outside, and I occasionally rolled around. The stars eventually cleared, and I began sitting up when the boat lurched to the left, and I was flung towards the bed.

I hit my head hard against its posts, and before I could process anything in my mind, I blacked out.

**Me: I was thinking of changing the title of this story to "Aftermath", but its kind of too late for that... What do you guys think? Tell me in your reviews :) I'll try and get the next chapter up quicker. What do you think will happen in the sequel? I'm 90% sure there will be one... :D Oh, oh, oh! I actually spelt "sequel" right! (I looked it up) **


	23. Mushrooms

**The titles to my chapters have like nothing to do with the chapter ever o.O It's just how I do things, I guess...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters.**

Mushrooms

When I opened my eyes I was still on the floor of the ship, and had rolled back towards the desk. Things that had been sitting on a piece of furniture or on the wall were now on the floor, broken or miraculously still in one piece.

I groaned and rubbed the back of my head, and sat up straight. The world spun around and I fell back down, nearly landing on a shattered picture frame.

I laid there for about five more minutes before I tried to get up again. Just like last time, the world spun around as if I were on a carnival ride, but I managed to get to the bed before I collapsed.

My head began pounding as if somewhere hitting it with a hammer, and I groaned and buried my face into the pillow. I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew there was a knock on my door.

"Huh...?" I muttered, shooting up. My head has stopped pounding, and the world was staying in one place. "Who is it?"

"We're almost ready to dock, Ms." A voice came from outside. "Be ready to leave in ten minutes."

Dock? What...? Did we make it to Sunny Island?

I got up and looked out the window, and saw we were actually back in Forget-Me-Not Valley. The boat must have turned around after I blacked out on the floor.

At least we didn't crash! I would probably be dead if we had.

Shaking my head, I put on some cleans clothes and hauled my suitcase up to deck. I had pulled my hair back and thrown on some sunglasses so nobody would recognize me.

Forget-Me-Not Valley looked exactly like I had last seen it, except it was getting bigger instead of small. Five minutes later, we were docked on the beach and all the passengers began filing out.

I hurried off the beach and onto Jill's farm, just to make sure they weren't there. I was almost immediately stopped by a police officer, who was putting some police tape around the entrance.

"Sorry, miss," he said. "Can't go in here."

Nodding, I hurried down to the Goddess spring, where the Sprite tree was. There was a small mushroom sitting in front of it, and looking around to make sure no one was at the pond, I pulled it out of the ground and ate it.

Everything got all wavy, and the next thing I knew, I was inside a little hut with Jill, Vaughn, Jonathon, and three human-sized sprites.

They all stared at me with looks of astonishment and horror until I pulled off the sunglasses and undid my hair.

"It's me," I said. "Chelsea."

"Chelsea!" Jill screamed, running over to hug me.

"Hey, Jill," I said, hugging her back. When we let go, I looked over at the sprite dudes. "Why are they so big?"

"Oh, they're not big," Jill said. "We're just _really_ small, like them."

"But you said that when you ate a mushroom you only got like two feet smaller." I said.

Jill shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Maybe they started growing new mushrooms..."

"We did," a big, fat yellow sprite called. "We found it got cramped when Jill came to visit, so we made new mushrooms to make you the same size as us."

"Oh," I said, and began looking around. The house was pretty much a small room carved into a tree. There was a big blue mushrooms with white dots on the middle, with three smaller identical mushrooms around it. There were multi-coloured mushrooms climbing up the wall, and I noticed that three of them must serve as beds because there were little balled up grass blades on them, with fluffy leaves tied together covering the mushroom.

Vaughn and Jonathon had hopped down from where they were sitting and were standing beside me now.

"So, what happened at Sunny Island?" Jonathon asked. "The Witch Princess _obviously_ didn't turn back time because we're still here!"

"She didn't turn back time because I didn't see her," I said matter-of-factly. "There was this huge storm, and we had to turn back. I didn't even set foot on Sunny Island."

The room was silent for a minute.

"I think they evacuated the island," I said quietly after a while. "I saw a boat rushing full-speed towards the island."

"What happened after that?" Jill asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know," I said. "I fell over and knocked my head on the bed, and blacked out. When I woke up the storm was over, and we were headed back here."

There was another pause of silence.

"So, what now?" Vaughn asked quietly.

"We wait, I guess," I said, looking at him. "They've blocked off you farm, Jill, and won't let anyone past. They're freaking about finding us."

Jill turned to the three sprites. "Can you guys get rid of the door?" she asked. "The police will probably check in here or something if they find it."

The smallest sprite shook his head. "No can do, Jill," it said. "The door stays."

Jill bit her lip, and slumped against the wall. "They'll probably find us eventually," she said. "We need to get out of here."

Sighing, I sat beside my little sister. "I should have left the moment I knew you were here," I said to her. "I've dragged you into this now..."

"Its fine, Chels," Jill said. "Really, it is. I don't mind a little excitement."

"Neither do I," I said. "But when that 'excitement' can land you in jail, then I start worrying. Jill, you have so much going for you. Don't throw it away to run with me."

"But what else am I supposed to do?" Jill asked. "I'm wanted for hiding you guys."

I sighed, and rested my head against the rough wall.

"I don't know..." I said softly. "But we definitely need to get out of here."

**Me: Hello and welcome to WDA Talk Show! Our guest for today is Flak! (the big, fat yellow sprite from AnWL)**

**Flak: Hello! *waves***

**Me: So, what is it like living in a tree?**

**Flak: It's cool, but sometimes bugs crawl across your face when you're sleeping or sap runs down the walls and gets into everything.**

**Me: Mhm... Is it cold or anything?**

**Flak: Not really. It does get a bit chilly during Winter, but we're fine.**

**Me: Nice. What's it like living amongst so many mushrooms?**

**Flak: I like it, because they double as food and furniture. **

**Me: *nods* Well, that's all the time we have for today! **

**Flak* Bye! *waves***


	24. Sisters

**Update! :D **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters. **

Sisters

We did get out of there. But it took a few hours of planning and patience. Jonathon nearly ran screaming out into the open when we were creeping through the woods past Jill's farm. It took Vaughn, Jill, and I to keep him down.

We slowly made it to the beach, where we all put on disguises and what-not to make us unrecognizable and climbed onto the boat. We had waited until night, so luckily it was dark, which made us even more unrecognizable.

We split into the two cabins, Jill and I, and Vaughn and Jonathon, because honestly, I don't trust that thieving fool. Vaughn looked a little hurt by the cabin choices, but I pulled him aside and told him why, he seemed to understand. I never thought that stoic cowboy would show much emotion...

Jill and I collapsed into bed afterwards. I don't know why, but the whole escape thing left me exhausted. I fell asleep almost immediately, and didn't wake up until we had to get off the boat.

We hurried off into the city, making sure to stay out of everyone's way. We had to cross the entire city to get to another dock where Jonathon was hoping we could find tickets to Zephyr Town.

Sure enough, as we neared the ticket booth, Zephyr Town was written across the top along with other towns and cities, with a price beside it.

Luckily the tickets weren't too expensive, since we had left all the money back on Castanet Island. We hurried below deck and into the one cabin. We could only afford one, and it wasn't too long of a trip anyway.

A few hours later, the ship docked in a city, and we got on wagon-type thing that took us up the mountain to Zephyr Town.

"This place is primitive!" Jill marvelled, glancing around her. "It's all like that book I read in eighth grade, _Heidi_. You know I haven't seen one pair of jeans since we got here?"

I rolled my eyes at my younger sister. "You know, not everyone has to be as 'technologically advanced' as you?" I said. "I think it's nice how primitive they are..."

The wagon rolled under a sign that said "Bazaar" on it. We passed through what seemed like an old marketplace, with stands covered in blankets and crates scattered everywhere. We went under another "Bazaar" sign and ended up in a field-like area, with a huge building to our left and a hill to our right.

The wagon suddenly pulled to a stop. The driver turned towards and began speaking, "Well, here you are. To get to town just cross that bridge o'er there and turn left. That big building 'side us is the hotel. If ya wanna know more, talk to Mayor Felix. He's the large man 'ith the top 'at."

We climbed out and the wagon turned around, back to the city. We decided to go to town, and so we crossed over the bridge past an old windmill and a river-side house, and turned left. We crossed yet another bridge and ended up in the centre of a small mountain town.

"Why, hello there!" a large voice boomed. We all looked up to see a gargantuan man standing in front of us, a big black top hat on his head. I figured he was the mayor the wagon driver was talking about.

"Hello," Jill said with a smile.

"I'm Felix, mayor of Zephyr Town!" the giant continued. "Now, what brings you here?"

I looked at Vaughn and Jonathon, and then at Jill.

"We're on vacation," I said quickly. "We were staying in the city, but decided to come up here for some fresh air."

"How nice," Felix said, smiling.

"I-I'm Sara, and this is my husband, Daniel," I told him, putting a hand on Vaughn's shoulder. "And this is Daniel's brother, Oliver, and his wife... Tina!"

Jill stared at me, and hit me on the arm.

Still smiling, I kicked her in the shin, which made shut up.

Felix obviously hadn't noticed us, and kept smiling. "Well, the hotel's down by the bazaar," he pointed to where we came from. "But feel free to explore!"

With that said, he strolled away.

"Why did you tell him Skye and I were married!" Jill asked me once Felix has gone.

I shrugged. "Why not?" I said. "It'll help make us seem less like... us."

"Yeah, well I am not sharing a bed with him," Jill said sternly. "Or a room."

"Uh, yes you are," I said, smacking her upside the head. "You need to make this seem as real as possible."

Jill grumbled something under her breath, and stalked away to the hotel, and the rest of us followed.

"I still can't believe I have to pretend to be married to _him_," Jill said angrily while we ate lunch at the Zephyr Cafe. She flicked her fork in Jonathon's direction.

"Hey!" Jonathon said defensively. "I'm not that bad," he smiled his sly smile at her and winked.

"You're the whole reason I'm in this mess!" Jill said.

"Jill, calm down," I told her, putting my hand on top of her's. "It's actually _my_ fault you're here. And I thought you might be happy to be pretending to be married to Jon─Skye... You seemed star struck when you met him."

"That was before I learned he was a _thief_," Jill said, tugging her hand out from under mine.

Jonathon stared at her, a hurt expression on his face. "A job is a job..." he muttered quietly.

"At least make it an _honest_ job!" Jill cried. She had obviously heard him.

"Jill, calm down," I said, placing my hand on her shoulder. "This isn't the right place."

Was it just me, or did that sound... hypocritical? I had done the same thing as my sister on Castanet Island, and here I was telling her not to do it.

Jill glared at me, and shot up from the table. She rushed out the door, most likely to the Hotel and our room.

"You know," Jonathon said after a while. "I never really thought you and Jill were alike, Chelsea... Now I can see a similarity."

**Me: Haha... Wow... I like the ending :3 Oh, expect a new story from me soon XD It's yet another VaughnXChelsea story. WHY... CAN'T... I... WRITE... ANYTHING... ELSE? **


	25. Dresses and Buckled Shoes

**One more chapter and this story will come to an end :) There will most definately be a sequel. There's still so much left to happen! Ok, so for the outfits described in this chapter, just go to the Grand Bazaar Ushi No Tane site, and for Chelsea look at Sherry, for Jill look at Marian, for Vaughn look at Ivan, and for Skye/Jonathon look at Dirk. I based all their outfits off those ones.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters.**

Dresses and Buckled Shoes

I leaned over a counter and looked at all the things set up in front of me. It was Saturday, and Felix had told us there was a bazaar today, so Jill and I went to check it out.

After Jill had run off, I chased after her and managed to calm her down. She had a good cry by the river, and we went back to the Cafe where she apologized to Jonathon for being so mean.

Looking over the counter, I saw that there was a bowl of asparagus soup, some boiled potatoes, and omelet set out in front of me. The kind old woman who ran the Zephyr Cafe and her granddaughter were standing behind the counter, smiling at us.

"I'll have some asparagus soup," Jill said, returning the smile.

"Of course," the old woman said, as her granddaughter took the plate and covered it in a cloth and put a spoon on top. "That will be 600 G, please."

Jill nodded, and took out her wallet and handed over 600 G.

"Thank you," the old woman said, putting the money in the cash box beside her. Her granddaughter handed Jill the soup, who immediately tore off the cloth and began eating the soup.

"Can I get you anything else?" the granddaughter asked.

"Um..." I said, looking at the contents on the counter. "Can I get two boiled potatoes and an omelet?"

The granddaughter nodded, and began preparing the food. She took the two potatoes on the plates, put a fork on each, and covered them with a cloth, then did the same with the omelet.

"That will be 1,680 G," the old woman said.

I pulled out the needed money and handed it to the woman, and we left.

"Where did you get all that money?" Jill asked me as we walked away from the Cafe stall.

"Vaughn gave it to me," I explained. "He and Jonathon have been finding different odd jobs all around town."

It had been almost two weeks since we arrived, and no one's recognized us, and we haven't been found. Not even by the search and rescue teams that scour the mountains looking for that lost little girl, Cindy. Maybe it's because we traded in our "city clothes" for more Swiss Alps clothing.

I now wore an orange and yellow vertical striped dress with short sleeves that reached my elbows and flared out at the end, a shawl-like thing that reached into the neck of my shirt, and a red stitched bodice, and a white apron with orange embroidery on it. I also had a hat on, that flipped up at the end, with a little ribbon that matched my shawl.

Jill wore a sweet dress that reached just below her knees with a green skirt and a pale green line along the hem, an orange and white checkered top with white puffed sleeves, and a red apron with paler red horizontal stripes. She had traded in her double ponytail for a small braid that ran along the side of her face.

Vaughn was now wearing black and grey striped pants that went just below his knees, tall white socks, black buckled shoes, a white shirt with black vest, a long, grey un-buttoned trench coat with flipped up sleeves.

Jonathon was wearing purple pants that went to his knees, white socks that went over the hem of his pants and were kept there by a silver belt, silver buckled shoes, a black button-up shirt, a silver and black striped coat with rolled up sleeves, and a black hat with a silver ribbon around the rim.

As we were leaving the bazaar, Jill made me stop by a gem stall so she could admire the pretty jewels on display. The guy behind the counter chuckled at her as she gawked at the gems, basking in their beauty.

After about five minutes, I got tired and dragged her away.

"But they're so pretty!" Jill pouted. "Can't we get one?"

"We don't have enough money!" I scolded as I pulled her away from the bazaar. "We hardly have enough for food. Oh, that soup is your only meal for today."

Jill's mouth fell open. "But it's only twelve thirty!" she cried.

"Do _you_ have money for another meal?" I asked. When she didn't answer, I said, "Nope. Didn't think so."

When we got into the hotel, we knocked on the door to the boy's room and walked in. I tossed Vaughn the omelet and Jonathon the boiled potato.

Jonathon glanced down at the plate in his lap, and cautiously lifted the cloth.

"A potato?" he asked. "Didn't they have anything else at that market thingy?"

"It's called a bazaar," I corrected. "And no. It was either that, or asparagus soup or an omelet."

Jonathon groaned, but started eating his potato anyway. We ate the rest of our meal in silence.

The next day, Vaughn and Jonathon went to the city looking for more jobs. Jill and I sat by the river, enjoying our day's meal.

"I'm so hungry..." Jill complained, taking a big bite out of her sautéed turnips.

"Don't choose asparagus soup next time," I told her, stabbing my cabbage rolls with my fork. "Pick something more filling."

"But I like asparagus soup..." Jill said quietly, putting her fork down. She sighed and fell back, closing her eyes.

"Sit up," I said, annoyed. "Do you want grass stains on your dress?"

The nineteen-year old wrinkled her nose, but sat up anyway. "Since when did you become so picky and strict?" she asked, picking her fork back up.

"Ever since we could only afford one meal a day," I told her, wagging my finger in her face.

After a few minutes of silent eating, Jill spoke up again. "When do you think this will all be over?" she asked.

"I don't know..." I said softly. "Soon I hope..."

As if on cue, Vaughn and Jonathon came running from the bazaar, out of breath and panting. Jill and I both jumped up and ran to our "husbands'" aids.

"What happened?" I asked, putting my hand on Vaughn's shoulder. Jonathon was holding a newspaper and flailing it around like a madman.

"We're... free..." he gasped.

**Me: Hello, and welcome to the last segment of WDA Talk Show! Our _guests_ today are Vaughn _and_ Chelsea!**

**Chelsea: Hello!**

**Vaughn:...Hi...**

**Me: So, what do you think it would be like to be actually on the run from a corporate giant?**

**Chelsea: I think it would be really scary and nerve-wracking becuase you never know if you're going to get caught or not.**

**Vaughn: What she said...**

**Me: *nods* Yeah. So, Chelsea, who's your favourite bachelor? Who do you like most?**

**Chelsea: No one. I mean there's so many stories where I like Vaughn or Denny, and then there's everyone else like Pierre or Elliot. I don't really have a favourite.**

**Me: Ok. So Vaughn, do you like the whole ChelseaXVaughn thing?**

**Vaughn: *looks at* I've been told not to speak.**

**Me: o.O Well ok then... Are you really a cold, cruel cowboy?**

**Vaughn: Yes.**

**Me: T_T Is there a soft side to you?**

**Vaughn: No.**

**Me: -.- Can you even be nice?**

**Vaughn: *thinks* ... ... ... ... *shrugs***

**Me: TT_TT Remind me _why_ I love you so much?**

**Vaughn: *blinks***

**Me: Oh yeah... it's on account of your awesome sexiness :P**

**Vaughn: Later! *walks away***

**Chelsea: Well... um... Bye! *follows Vaughn***

**Me: *looks at reader* Bye bye! *throws script and leaves***


	26. Trusting Me

**Here we go... the last chapter of Walking in the Devasted Area :'(At least there's going to be a sequel XD It may or may not be as long as this story and Ruins so... Hey, did you guys realize that Walking in the Devasted Area has the same amount of chapters as Ruins? o.O Not intended... Anywho, the sequel will be called Rebuilding, and I'll have it up as soon as possible :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters.**

Trusting Me

Jill and I looked at each other, then back to Vaughn and Jonathon.

"What do you mean we're _free_?" I asked, fixing my hat which had nearly slipped off my head.

Jonathon waved the paper he was holding in front of face. I realized it was from a newspaper, and snatched it from him. It read:

_Regison Declares Innocence_

My heart skipped a beat as I read it.

_Back in Spring, Regis Regison caught three people, Chelsea Smith, Vaughn Anderson, and Jonathon Anderson, in his library attempting to steal jewels from a box. The threesome managed to escape and stay clear of Regison's hired agents and police officers. Smith and Vaughn Anderson were last spotted in Forget-Me-Not Valley, where they were hiding with Smith's sister, Jill Smith. Jonathon Anderson has managed to hide under the radar, and no one knows where the man is. Jill Smith is now wanted along with her sister and the two men for hiding criminals. Police have reported that the four have left Forget-Me-Not Valley, and rumours are emerging that they are now hiding in the small mountain village of Zephyr Town._

_Well, they now have no reason to hide. At least, Jill and Chelsea Smith and Vaughn Anderson don't. Regis Regison announced this morning that he has proclaimed the three of them innocent of any crime involving his stolen property. Why the sudden change of heart? _

_Regison says that early in the summer, while he was looking through some papers concerning his mining business, his daughter, Sabrina Regison, and nephew, William Regison, walk in carrying a disk. They told him to watch it, and when he asks what it is about, they deny to answer. The multi-millionaire puts the disk in his office's TV set and finds it's a surveillance video of the library, filmed on the night of the robbery._

_It clearly shows one man sneaking into the library with a sack, which he begins filling with jewels. A few seconds later, two more figures, which appear to be Smith and Vaughn Anderson, walk in and begin speaking to the thief, who turns out to be Jonathon Anderson. While they speak to him about how dangerous and risky his crime is, the box of jewels clatters to the floor and Regison and his daughter and nephew come rushing in. _

_After watching and re-watching the video, Regison finally decides to make Chelsea and Jill Smith and Vaughn Anderson innocent, while Jonathon Anderson remains guilty of the crime. _

I stopped reading here, and looked up at the two gleeful men in front of me.

"Did you guys actually read this?" I asked.

The brothers looked at each, and then shook their heads.

"Well you should have," I said. "Jonathon's still wanted."

"What?" Jonathon cried, and snatched the paper from my hands. He quickly scanned through it, and his face turned pale. "W-What...?" he muttered softly.

"You're still wanted," I repeated, even though I knew he understood perfectly well. "Regis saw you stealing the gems on video, but he saw Vaughn and I come in and try to stop you."

Jonathon collapsed onto the grass like a lifeless doll, all the joy from the last minute gone in the blink of an eye. I sat down beside him, and was mimicked by Vaughn and Jill.

"Don't worry," I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It'll all be fixed soon. Vaughn and I will go find the Witch Princess, and she'll fix it all."

Jonathon looked at me, doubt and hopefulness mixed into his eyes.

"I promise," I told him, as if to reassure him.

"But what about me?" Jill asked. "What will I do?"

"You'll go back to Forget-Me-Not Valley," I said, wagging a finger at my little sister. "I don't want you to get more involved in this than you already are."

Jill crossed her arms and glared angrily at me. "This is so unfair..." she murmured.

"It is not unfair," I said sternly. Turning back to Vaughn and Jonathon, I asked, "So, what do we do now?"

"I guess we leave," Vaughn said, shrugging slightly. "Jill goes back to Forget-Me-Not Valley... You and I go back to Sunny Island... Jonathon goes back into hiding..."

"Wait, Jonathon?" Jill piped up, just then realized we had been calling "Skye" Jonathon this whole time. "I thought his name was Skye!"

"No," Jonathon sighed. "It's Jonathon."

"Then why'd you tell me it was Skye?" Jill pouted as Jonathon shrugged. She then got up, and walked away, calling quietly over her shoulder, "I'm going to go pack... and change into more comfy clothes..."

I got up off the grass and began packing up the unfinished picnic. Vaughn and Jonathon helped me, and together we walked back to the hotel.

Once inside, we went to our separate rooms to begin getting ready to leave. I found Jill sitting on her bed, staring angrily at the floor.

"Jill..." I called softly, putting the picnic basket on the floor. "Pouting will you get you nowhere."

"So?" Jill snapped, and crossed her arms.

I sighed, and sat down beside her, putting my arm around her shoulders.

"Why are you so mad?" I asked. "There's nothing to be mad at."

"Yes there is!" Jill cried. "You guys are treating me like a baby!"

"No we're not," I told her, trying to stay calm. "I'm doing what I think is best for you, which is going back to your farm."

"Why can't I just go with you?"

"Because you've already risked enough," I explained. "I don't want you to risk more."

Jill looked up at me, her eyes wide, all the anger vanished. "But what if something bad happens to you?" she asked.

"Nothing bad will happen to me," I said, stroking her hair. "Trust me."

* * *

At 2:43 am the next morning, a knock sounded on the hotel room door, telling Jill and I it was time to go. We quickly got dressed and hauled the bags carrying our few possessions out into the hallway, where Vaughn and Jonathon were standing.

We silently walked downstairs, and out the door. A wagon was waiting for us at the empty bazaar, and we climbed into it. It rolled down the mountain to the city, where we would get on different boats and go our separate ways.

Jill's boat was ready to board first. She was one her way back to Forget-Me-Not Valley, back to her farm. I hugged her tightly, and she waved to Vaughn and Jonathon as she walked towards her waiting ferry. I smiled slightly as she got on, and leaned over the rail, and waved until the boat disappeared.

Jonathon was next to go. He wouldn't tell us where he was going, just that we'd probably never heard of the place. I hugged him just I did with Jill, and he shook hands with his older brother. He boarded his ship, only turning back to wave once before going below decks.

Vaughn and I were left alone. I grabbed his hand and intertwined my fingers with his, and we stood there, waiting for our own ship to arrive.

Once it did, we grabbed our bags and hurried on board.

"I can't wait to see Sunny Island again!" I said, smiling. "Do you think Julia's had her baby yet?"

"I doubt it," Vaughn said, sitting himself down on one of the seats. "It's still early in Summer."

I sat down beside him, still smiling. "Well, it doesn't matter anyway!" I said. "We're going to find the Witch Princess, and she'll turn everything around!"

Vaughn nodded quietly. "Until then, we'll just have to make do with what we've got."

**Me: TT_TT It's all over... This story wasn't half as romantic as the last, but the next one will be 'cause it will only be Vaughn and Chelsea, no annoying little siblings XD I'm thinking I should get a DeviantART account so I can draw pictures for these stories :3 I've already drawn one; the first chapter in Ruins, where Chelsea's on the ship going to Sunny Island. I also started drawing the one where Chelsea falls in the river and nearly gets drowned by a fish :D I'm not the BEST drawer, so they'll be pretty crappy. Oh, and I don't really have access to a scanner so I'll just have to take pictures of the drawings with my camera (once I find it O_O) So yeah :) **

**Bye! **


End file.
